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Rating: 
Summary: The Case for Applying Complexity Science to Business Models
Review: "To lead the people, walk behind them." -- Sun Tzu This quote ends the book, and nicely summarizes the important lessons about eBay's business and leadership model. The strength of this book is in pointing out the qualities of eBay's business model that have led to the company's success. The weaknesses lie in giving you lots of details about the company's operations that users of eBay's services already know very well. You can skip these details unless you have never used eBay. eBay executives did not make themselves available for interviews, so don't look for any startling insider stories here either. At a time when dot coms are crashing like avalanches during a spring thaw in the Alps, it is worthwhile beginning to separate out what differentiates the winners from the losers. In 9 cases out of 10, the key differences will be in business models rather than in execution. The internet is primarily a way to exchange information. Those who organized around doing that function supremely well will prosper. Those who tried to provide a lot of other services often will not, both because there is no money in it and because it makes the contact point less valuable. Basically, eBay "eliminated many of the inefficiencies of traditional person-to-person commerce." You could only deal with people you could easily find. You did not know if you could trust them or not. Exchanging information was time consuming and frustrating. With eBay, the situation is much improved. As a result, collectors can scratch their itch for unusual goods more easily. People with overstuffed attics can profitably empty them out with an eBay yard sale. Small retailers can move rare items by expanding the geographic market they can serve. That's simply good for everyone. Since everyone wants to be in the biggest auction, eBay was right to let anyone auction almost anything to attract the bulk of the market. Although the book does not discuss complexity science, its conclusions are in line with that subject. As the authors point out, key earlier decisions were "(1) to let everybody sell anything, and (2) to take a hands-off approach to user transactions." There is a great temptation to try to regulate something, but that is the royal road to ruin. The authors point out that community is eBay's main asset, and that this community is "fun" for its participants. If you are like me, you have found that so many internet communities quickly become a pain, instead! Can you think of any you would rather not belong to? I certainly can. But it's hard to get rid of them in many cases. I liked the comparison the authors made that eBay has the scaling opportunity of Amazon with margins like Yahoo. The discussion of how outsourcing made and makes this possible was a good one. You will enjoy the discussion of the decision to insource customer service as a way to better understand customer needs. That was clearly the right choice. The book is basically also quite honest. It is a major pain to put images up on eBay, and the book points that out. It also suggests some vendors who can make that chore easier for you. Since eBay is still quite a young company, the authors leave you with many scenarios for what might come next for eBay. I thought that was a useful approach to take, as well as quite interesting. The key lessons for any company planning to be in the people-to-people contact business are: Have as your mission to be the largest in the world. Emphasize as your strategy to (1) expand your user base, (2) strengthen your brand, (3) broaden your content platform to match user's needs, (4) foster the most community affinity, and (5) enhance site features and functionality ahead of competitors. Although this book is about eBay, you can get a lot of benefit from thinking about it as a lesson for your company's business model, as well. Where else can you be a better leader by applying this model?
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Summary: Dull book with little information
Review: If you have no idea what Internet is and have never seen ebay web site then you might learn something from this book. But for an average Internet-savvy person it offers little to nothing. There is a lengthy description of well-know information (like terms of sale of ebay) and constant selling of ebay business model: nothing you can't read elsewhere.
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Summary: so and so
Review: The author "gets" eBay. Unfortunately, he was not granted interviews or access to eBay people. As a result, the book is little more than a collection of articles from the Industry Standard, Fast Company abd the like. Furthermore, the book covers eBay until December 1999 or Q1 2001 at most. Back then, it looked like Yahoo! had a business model, remember? And yes, the author contemplates the possibility of a Yahoo! takeover (which was possible) and even the ridiculous idea that eBay should perhaps create its own "portal" in order to grow... Not worth the money. Buy "The Perfect Store" by Adam Cohen instead.
Rating:
Summary: so and so
Review: The author "gets" eBay. Unfortunately, he was not granted interviews or access to eBay people. As a result, the book is little more than a collection of articles from the Industry Standard, Fast Company abd the like. Furthermore, the book covers eBay until December 1999 or Q1 2001 at most. Back then, it looked like Yahoo! had a business model, remember? And yes, the author contemplates the possibility of a Yahoo! takeover (which was possible) and even the ridiculous idea that eBay should perhaps create its own "portal" in order to grow... Not worth the money. Buy "The Perfect Store" by Adam Cohen instead.
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Summary: Must read for anybody interested in e-business/e-commerce
Review: This book about ebay has been written by the author of "Making the Cisco connection". The book is interesting to read because it presents a holistic picture of the business success of ebay. Each chapter focuses on an area of the company that is responsible for it capturing 90% of the on-line auction market. The company has been growing at 40-50% per quarter in terms of employees, users and revenues. There have been problems managing the growth with servers becoming overloaded. However, ebay is an electronic commerce or e-business success story. The most interesting facts from the book is that a virtual community has been built around the ebay business. The community is a key reason for the success of the company. Buyers and sellers provide feedback on each other for future buyers and sellers to examine. Discussion boards exist for many topics for the community to help each other through shared experiences. Interesting also is the modern corporate culture of the company as discussed in one chapter. Also, the business strategy of the company of being in a way a virtual company where buyers and sellers meet then use third party companies to ship, pay and arrange for handling of products auctioned. Ebay is simply an information exchange company with no products at all. A businessman's paradise company. For all those interested in successful e-business read this book.
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Summary: Sold!!
Review: This book basically delivers what it promises to. Lots of somewhat dry facts about how a small Internet business boomed into one of the hottest "sites" available.
I am a big Ebay fan. I wanted to find out more about the people who created Ebay but also wanted to get a feel for the direction these people were hoping to guide the future of the site to. Although I thought the story was fairly interesting, this book was very dryly written. Not much was cited other than the absolute bare bones facts and the writing was not particularly interesting. While I realize this is a business book, I think there was much room for interesting tidbits, advice or funny stories. None here. Too bad...
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Summary: Not much meat
Review: This book gives an overview of ebay's creation and why it has been a success. It gives no insider insights however. It was fun to read but I did not learn much from it. This book does not have substance.
Rating:
Summary: Not much meat
Review: This book gives an overview of ebay's creation and why it has been a success. It gives no insider insights however. It was fun to read but I did not learn much from it. This book does not have substance.
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Summary: A poor read
Review: This book is basically a series of quoted and sited magazine articles hastily cobbled together into a book. The only "real" interviews done by the author are with a few eBay customers who use the site. The author admits no one with eBay granted him an interview or let him in the building. For a much better story of how eBay came to be, read eBoys by Robert Stross.
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