Tuesday, October 7, 2008

eBays Plans For Europe Updated


This morning we get a glimpse of eBay's plans for Europe.

By the end of Q1 2009 eBay will shut down its operations in Poland and a majority of 39 countries in which it has local versions of its Internet auction portal.

Operations in Europe will be run from two headquarters in London and Bern. The plans mean laying off about 1,000 of its 16,000 strong workforce. "Persons who will stay in the company will be moved to eBay headquarters, or will be employed in PayPal or Skype," said Karol Świtała, spokesperson of eBay Polska.

Changes in the structure of the company should bring about savings of $70-80 million by the end of the year.

eBay currently has European regional operations in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. I am not sure if Turkey would be included in Europe, geographically it would make sense.

UPDATED

Much coverage in the European press as people realize that all country offices will be closed with the exception of course of London and Berne, Switzerland. It appears that all marketing will be run from the USA.

From Germany Der Tagesspiegel reports:
The Ebay speaker confirmed only that management functions are above average strongly affected by job reduction.

From Austria the Wirtschafts Blatt questions eBay's business model citing the cutting of jobs to save an estimated $70M next year while simultaneously spending $1.4B in a shopping spree.

If the supremacy of eBay a few years ago was undisputed it is no longer so, successful online dealers have gradually discovered alternative sales possibilities on the Internet, also in Austria. The strong arm enforcement of Paypal as a payment method has increasingly infuriated PowerSellers, who feel strong resentment at Ebay profiteering at their expense. It has been conjectured the trend to develop their own online Webshops could accelerate. For many dealers Ebay has become too complicated”, says a former Powerseller from Austria.


Y'all come back!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Henrietta:

Excellent. I don't think anyone on this side of the pond has covered reactions of eBayers and the press regarding eBay recent actions, except for the UK, in Europe to much extent.

My oldest son, German/American, in Germany, tells me there is really growing anger and disdain among eBay sellers that he knows in Germany. Admittedly not that many, but some.

TomH

PS: Perhaps a one more swipe of the brush on the translations.....LOL

Henrietta said...

Thanks Trudi for polishing the translation!

Anonymous said...

QUOTE: "My oldest son, German/American, in Germany, tells me there is really growing anger and disdain among eBay sellers that he knows in Germany. Admittedly not that many, but some."

Is there a purpose to a company alienating it's client base worldwide. I guess it is a disruption, but I am not convinced that it's innovative.

Thank you for view into Europe, Henrietta.

Kind Regards, Kevin

Unknown said...

Hi! Amazing how eBay acted: It seems as if they told none of their employees, that they planned their future - without them. A dirty layoff from a company, that started with a different approach.