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Ebay To Eliminate 1,000 Jobs, or 9% of Full-Time Workforce (cnbc.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the more-cuts dept.
Ebay said Tuesday that it plans to lay off 9% of the company's workforce, equal to about 1,000 full-time jobs, as the tech industry continues to downsize to start 2024. From a report: Jamie Iannone, Ebay's CEO, told employees in a letter published on a corporate blog, that the company will also "scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months." Iannone said the job cuts are necessary because Ebay's "overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. To address this, we're implementing organizational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world. Shortly, we will begin notifying those employees whose roles have been eliminated and entering into a consultation process in areas where required."
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Ebay To Eliminate 1,000 Jobs, or 9% of Full-Time Workforce More

Ebay To Eliminate 1,000 Jobs, or 9% of Full-Time Workforce

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  • Excellent (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    That guy who didn't rule the dispute in my favor will also go.

    • I used to use eBay constantly, but now I often don't even bother looking at eBay. AliExpress has all the same Chinese stuff eBay had, and more, but somehow AliExpress gets the products to my door weeks faster and their prices are cheaper.

      • Taobao is another good one, if one can find a good Taobao agent. I've also never heard anything bad about AliExpress, while I've read lots of horror stories about eBay, especially if one is a seller there.

        Now, if I were selling stuff, I'd avoid eBay. I hear so many horror stories of someone selling an iPhone, it gets bought, the buyer allegedly swaps it for a stolen, iCloud locked iPhone, or just swaps the phone for a dud of the same model, then files a fraud complaint. The seller winds up both without t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sd4f ( 1891894 )
        I think ebay is regressing to what it originally was, online auctions for mostly used stuff that individuals want to sell and get the best price for. I too use aliexpress now for all that cheap junk, but the problem ebay has is that any of these platforms reliant on sellers selling stuff, it's all about volume. That became clear when more and more stuff was just "buy it now" quite some time ago, if those sales start to disappear, then no doubt ebay is going to suffer.

        • Well. I don't know in other countries, but in mine, ebay charges a lot to sellers. Also, thantks to dishonest sellers who used to setup higher shipping costs to avoid fee over article price, now you pay a percentage of your sale including shipping costs (some products worth 5€ may get a shipping cost of 10 euros, you pay 11% of those 15 euros). Besides, there is a forced policy of paypal only payments movement. People has moved to other second hand sites where you are free to sell your article however

      • Stopped using eBay after the last time they screwed me over. fleeceBay can go to hell.
      • I'm pretty sure AliExpress has a warehouse in my city, because I've bought things and had them turn up less than a week later.

      • AliExpress and Temu are good for new-in-box things that don't need to be brand name. I use eBay and Mercari mostly for collecting a toy line that was popular in the late 1980s and mid-2000s. I don't have a Facebook account (I graduated before it existed). What other web-based trading sites are good for buying and selling vintage toys?

  • "To address this, we're implementing organizational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world. Shortly, we will begin notifying those employees whose roles have been eliminated and entering into a consultation process in areas where required"

    I wonder which AI they used to write this "you're fired but maybe we'll ask you to consult for us" notice.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zlives ( 2009072 )

      nah this is probably coming from the consultant hired to explain how AI will benefit (ahem cut jobs) in the future so get ahead of the story.

  • a drop in a bucket (Score:1, Insightful)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 )

    The number of people losing jobs will accelerate now. Then the Fed will drop interest rates again and then will start another round of QE (a euphemism for money printing) to try and prop up the falling stock market prices and possibly there may be even more checks handed out, the way Trump did it during COVID, I wouldn't be surprised. All of this inflation will be reflected in the higher prices, so fewer items purchased will lead to more consolidation of the companies in the market, more firing, will lead

    • What's the alternative?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

        The alternative is to wake up from the dystopian fantasy and look at reality.

        Stock markets are at all-time highs. Unemployment is 3.7%, an historic low. Inflation is falling. Productivity is rising. Wages are going up, and going up fastest for people on the bottom rung.

        People love to whine and complain that the world is going to hell, but that is not reality.

        • Hey, no prompting, please!

        • ...Wages are going up, and going up fastest for people on the bottom rung.

          People keep saying this, and maybe it's true in the bigger metropolitan areas, but out here in bumfuck, flyover, it's absolutely not true at all outside of the fast food places that try to keep pace with national trends. Wages still aren't rising enough to cover inflation, and haven't in nearly forty years. When everything costs 7-15% more year by year, and our annual raises are 3%, it's effectively a pay cut. Every year. And that's pretty standard in our area. "Exceptional" employees may get 4%. OOO! So bi

        • Stock markets are at all-time highs.

          Trickle down doesn't exist. Fuck your GDP.

          Unemployment is 3.7%, an historic low.

          An historic lie, and the same lie that's been told for decades. After you've been out of work for six months you no longer show up in the stats, so the worse things get, the bigger the lie gets. That's why the lie is bigger under Biden than it was under Trump, which was bigger than it was under Obama, etc. We know the lie is getting bigger because the number of homeless is increasing at an increasing rate.

          Inflation is falling.

          False [shrm.org]. The rate of increase is falling, but inflation is sti

      • A couple things. One, make it so you have to own any stock you purchase for a minimum of a year. Another would be that only individuals may own homes and no one can own more than one until everyone that wants one has one. The intent is to make it so work is the best way to make money, not investment.

        • The first idea is implemented in my home country (if you don't hold stocks long enough, you pay more income tax for them), the effect is negligible.

          The second would mean that a lot of people suddenly start to own homes... on paper. They'd get money to "own" homes they then "rent" to the actual owner (for a nominal fee, usually whatever property tax is to be paid on the property) and that real owner also has a signed and undated sales contract stored. Sorry, that has been tried before, too.

        • One, make it so you have to own any stock you purchase for a minimum of a year.

          No. That is market distortion (on top of what we already have). If someone buys stock and sometime during that year the stock starts plummeting because of something bad happening (financial shenanigans, work disruption, etc), you're now stuck for however many months you have left on that year until you can get out. If the company goes out of business you just lost all your money because you couldn't sell while others coul

    • I doubt the Fed is dropping interest rates anytime soon. The tiff in the Red Sea is already causing shipping issues... which means inflation, which means the Fed hiking interest rates. Inflation isn't coming from the dollar and QE, but from basic supply and demand, and the fact that shipping traffic has never been in this much danger since World War II.

      In any case, regardless of interest rates going up or down, companies don't realize that every worker they boot is one less buying their stuff, so we likel

      • Re:a drop in a bucket (Score:5, Informative)

        by Firethorn ( 177587 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @04:47AM (#64183919) Homepage Journal

        Shipping in the red sea should have minimal impact on the USA. Goods from Korea/China come via the Pacific instead, We get most of our oil from Canada, not the middle east. Goods from Europe coming here don't have to go through there either. Even stuff from Africa probably isn't going to go through it.

        It's more likely to screw Europe. Heck, that's mentioned in articles about it, Europe is bearing the brunt.

        Though with the US being basically the only remaining major naval power, and the global economy and everything, it's probably for the best if we settle things down.

        Probably in the usual "proportionate" US fashion.
        (which bears very little in the way of proportionality)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gtall ( 79522 )

          China is fast becoming a major Naval power and they have no problems siphoning money from their economy to fund more ships. Without ships, Taiwan is inaccessible due to the current American navy. Every year that Taiwan is inaccessible, Xi Jinping's dick shrinks an inch. So he'll have to move soon or we will all know him as Dickless.

          • They're building up, but I wouldn't rate them as being there yet. They also lack the ability to project power to the red sea in massive amounts, currently. Maybe I'll change my mind in around 5 years.

            Don't forget the recent "missiles filled with water" scandals.

        • Gotta love the Fat Electrician! QuckBang, out.

    • Re:a drop in a bucket (Score:5, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @07:29AM (#64184093)

      All of this inflation will be reflected in the higher prices

      You do realize the inflation we're seeing is the result of companies raising prices [theguardian.com] because they can, right? This has little to nothing to do with the miniscule increase in salaries [marketwatch.com] or supposed supply chain issues [marketwatch.com] or anything else. It's been documented this is nothing more than greedflation [marketwatch.com] which raising interest rates won't bring down. To bring down prices people need to stop buying things [marketwatch.com]. Let the food sit on the shelves, don't buy the latest piece of crap from Shein or H&M, get rid of streaming services. Forcing companies to lower prices to get inventory moving is the only way to bring down prices.

      But, like not buying from Amazon, it's too difficult a task so it can't be done. Lazy Americans would rather whine and bitch than do something.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Hodr ( 219920 )

        I guess maybe you didn't actually take economics in school? Inflation caused by supply constraints or labor costs are no more authentic than inflation caused by profit taking. The result on the value of your dollar is the same. The only real difference is that competition can drive down profit margins, eventually.

        • Inflation caused by supply constraints or labor costs are no more authentic than inflation caused by profit taking. The result on the value of your dollar is the same. The only real difference is that competition can drive down profit margins, eventually.

          If the inflation is caused by labor costs that implies that laborers, who are also consumers, are getting paid and can therefore afford to buy stuff. But for some reason you chose to conflate that with supply constraints, even though they are dramatically and obviously different. Why?

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            because unless you are on the very bottom rung its not actually different. if retail/hospitality/service work see wage growth but wages stay flat elsewhere, that continues to hollow out the middle class every-bit as much as more money going to the 1%ers; maybe faster.

      • So you are going to sit here and quote Jerome Powell, who is blaming inflation on corporation, right? OK, you do that. Jerome Powell, the current chair of the Fed. The same Fed that held interest rates down to 1% in the early 2000s, near 0 between 2008 and 2017, between 1 and 2 from 2017 to 2019 and then flat 0 from 2020 to 2022. Of-course now the interest rate is around 5%, but that's quite a bit too late, isn't it? The inflation that was accumulating over all of those years of QE, handouts, bailouts,

    • What's out of the ordinary in this move? Extrapolating from ONE point at eBay to the wider economy is kind of silly.

        https://stockanalysis.com/stoc... [stockanalysis.com]

  • Ebay's growth has been cooling for a while (Score:4, Interesting)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @12:29AM (#64183599) Homepage Journal

    I mean seriously, the site design is nearly unchanged in 20 years. There has been little effort in reaching out to new customers, in offering market research metrics, or in diversifying their business in any way. It's a pretty good site for auctions, but that's all it is and apparently that's all Jamie wants it to be.

    • Re:Ebay's growth has been cooling for a while (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @12:36AM (#64183615)

      Which is fine! Other than keeping up on security updates and changes required by any legislation... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

      No company can have eternal growth, so if you reach a good point and just try to hold the line, that's fine.

      Personally, I stopped using eBay a long time ago but at least to me it's still synonymous with 'online auction' and that ain't bad branding.

      • A tech company with a P/E of 12 but isn't actively trying to expand and is doing layoffs outside of a recession (we're not quite in a recession yet). Big red flag for investors.

        I'm not asking for the impossible, Ebay is certainly free to run their company as they see fit. Although investor have purchased shares in the past thinking they would go further than this, about 12 times further than this. So I think it is problematic to hold onto stocks for such a company.

        • I am not sure if I consider Ebay a tech company. But a P/E of 12 is pretty good. Much lower than most tech companies.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by narcc ( 412956 )

          we're not quite in a recession yet

          Wish all you want, it's not going to happen.

        • Didn't realize eBay's P/E was only 12. Contrast that to the S&P500, at like 26 [multpl.com], makes eBay feel cheap in comparison, no?

          Also, a P/E of 12 doesn't mean investors are thinking the share price will go "12 times further than this", whatever that statement means. It's just the ratio of share price vs. earnings, it doesn't really tell you expectations on future share prices or company earnings. If you could buy the entirety of a local business for $120K, that each year makes you (the owner) $10K in earnings

      • eBay has come to replace Amazon for me since Amazon has basically been sliding toward becoming an eBay anyway. May as well go with the original. Plus, I like that I can use PayPal with eBay, but I cannot with Amazon. I would rather only one, well protected entity have direct access to my credit card information.

    • While eBay has seen a lot of erosion from Chinese junk merchants like AliExpress and Temu, when you want to buy something from real people it's nice to use eBay. I frequently buy used books through eBay from a thrift store in a nearby city. Both their app and web site are rock-solid, and I have seen very conservative improvements to the UI over the last couple years. I'm actually glad they haven't overreacted to the threat of Chinese dropshippers because they could easily have destroyed everything they've b

      • Reverb is basically Ebay for musical instruments. Buddy of mine that's a guitarist buys from there instead of Ebay because it's not an action site, you either buy it now or haggle ("make offers") but no actions, and it's full of musicians, so there's just a lot less B.S. and scams.

        I suspect if I dug into it I'd find other specialized sites for ebay. I know there are ones for game collecting and action figures. Those are going to chip away at their dominance.

    • eBay doesn't need a site redesign. It works, don't screw with it.

      If they need to do anything big it is (and I can't believe I'm saying this) on the marketing side.

      There are certainly some small improvements which could be made, though, notably in the area of improving search. It's getting harder to find the specific things I want, instead of some variety I get a wave of crap I'm not looking for. I wind up having to do a bunch of search term engineering.

    • Ebay is overly hostile to sellers.

      It ceased being a site that the casual person could use to sell their household items a long time ago. It is now way easier, cheaper, and less risky to use sites like Poshmark or Etsy for that purpose.

      Ebay's great F Up is they tried to become another Amazon by attracting all these giant commercial retailers to set up store fronts - and in that process they screwed up their core value prop, which was peer-to-peer sales.

      • > ..hostile to sellers
        I think it depends on the seller's approach (to some extent). Its rather 'friendly' to serious seller IMHO.

        The obscuring of bider's IDs benefits sellers, as it allows them to place phantom bids to artificially
        raise the bid prices. Because the IDs are hidden and 'unique' to each item, one can never 'prove'
        that the bids are artificially inflated ... but given the number of times one looses by 1$ or 1£ ...
        well ...

        Then there is the prevalence of 'private' sellers listing scores

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by brunes69 ( 86786 )

          You're illustrating my point.

          eBay started as a P2P selling site. It was not for "serious sellers", it was to sell one-off things.

          Catering to "serious sellers" and all their affiliated baggage and issues - and having too easy of a dispute process - is what ruined the entire platform.

    • [ebay is] a pretty good site for auctions, but that's all it is and apparently that's all Jamie wants it to be.

      i used to shop/transact there fairly often, but they have a large counterfeit item problem.
      if you report the fraud, you'll get your money back, but the seller often gets to continue per usual.

      decided it's not worth my time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I mean seriously, the site design is nearly unchanged in 20 years. There has been little effort in reaching out to new customers, in offering market research metrics, or in diversifying their business in any way. It's a pretty good site for auctions, but that's all it is and apparently that's all Jamie wants it to be.

      Well, eBay at this point is large enough to matter. There is no need to advertise - if you want to find something or sell something, chances are you will go onto eBay. It's the network effect a

  • ebay has basically just been a second aliexpress for like 5 years

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by narcc ( 412956 )

      There's a lot of that, sure, but if you're willing to put in a little effort, you can still score the same deals that drove users to the site 20+ years ago.

    • Ebay is still useful for buy used niche stuff that you can't buy from China, much like it was used for originally.

  • i wonder how many of these people were snapped up during during covid hiring spree. now that spending has apparently cooled, they are expendable. hmmm. prob. not a good company to work for. like, ever.

  • And while we're counting heads to be severed... (Score:3)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @01:41AM (#64183707)

    Perhaps it's time to take a hard look at the employment future of a certain CEO who palpably failed to insure that growth outpaced "overall headcount and expenses". That's kinda his job, isn't it?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      I think we can probably replace the CEO with a ChatGPT bot. Bots like that are easy to train given the plethora of CEO ad-copy masquerading as company statements. And it won't get tired of answering subordinates questions, even be up on the weekends, ready, willing, and able.

  • Despite their efforts, Ebay is painful to use outside the US. AliExpress works reasonably well independent of the country. Ebay: those automatic translations to the local language are unnecessary, instead resolve the connectivity issues that require using proxies in the US that have been going on for ages.

    • AliExpress works reasonably well independent of the country.

      AliExpress has one truly major, epic fail: Searches with more than two terms do not work at all, I get zero results with them. If I want to search for stuff on their site, you have to use an external search engine. I thought it might be some pecularity of my ad blocking but no, I was talking to a coworker about this and he has the same problem. As a result I have resorted to buying some items on amazon or ebay simply because I could find them there, and couldn't find them on aliexpress. When I bought a Andr

  • Does anyone think Ebay would care if those 1000 people has been working remotely or has been coming to office?

    Anyone still thinks that working in the office would make it harder for you to be laid off?

  • How does eBay require over 10,000 employees?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by RedK ( 112790 )

      Same reason Twitter "needed" 8000.

      Unchecked growth resulting in massive bloat.

      Tech all around is bloated. Pretty much every big tech firm at this point has at least 20% staff that is just unneeded. There was this misconception that we had shortages, when more than likely, it's just poor management of existing resources and effort duplication, or downright "Adult day care" type positions.

  • Why did eBay even have a thousand employees to lose? What could these people have been working on?

  • I really couldn't care less about Ebay. Their shipping prices overseas are absurd. My first purchase on eBay was in 1994. I bought a lot back in the day. When the Internet was flourishing. For a decade the shipping prices were about 5-10 dollars to where I live (not in US). Today, it's not hard to find $100 for shipping, or many times a higher price than the product for shipping here. Obviously, eBay doesn't want to stay competitive. My last purchase on ebay was in 2020. The product never came by the way a

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