PayPal split will "hurt eBay"

auction-hammer

The Verge reports on how the coming corporate divorce will likely hurt the retail site.

PayPal today is one of the strongest parts of eBay. eBay Payments' revenue, of which PayPal is the key component, grew 14 percent year over year, by far the healthiest of eBay's three current business divisions. But revenue from eBay Marketplaces, the traditional eBay storefront we've all come to know and tolerate over the last few decades, declined 4 percent year over year. That's a relatively small decline — but, as noted by Mike Isaac at The New York Times, it's also the first time that Marketplaces revenue declined since Q3 of 2009.

I'm often struck by how thoroughly unpleasant the eBay experience is. Around its heart–auctions of cool old stuff–is an amazing mountain of everything bad about internet retail. It would be interesting to see it forced to modernize beyond cute homepage redesigns and janky upload dialogs.

eBay Inc. Reports First Quarter Results