DISQUS

Bill Hartzer · 2 years ago

Personally, I am not sure what eBay is going to do with it--but looks to me like they're jumping on the "social networking bandwagon" so to speak...because they'd better acquire StumbleUpon before someone else does.

If eBay integrates StumbleUpon into their category listings so people/buyers can browse the listings easier then it's definitely going to be a good help--especially to keep users on the site longer.

Jonathan · 2 years ago

Well, what, after all, have they done with Skype? I don't think we'll be seeing anything significant before 2012.

Seth · 2 years ago

Pete -
This deal may actually may sense. It seems crazy if you think about it purely from the point of view of revenue overlap, or similar market opportunities, but there is a value. My theory is that it's largely a marketing related purchase. eBay spends a fortune on lead referrals, search and display advertising. This is just paying for it up front in one sum

In buying Stumble they get the benefits of a web community and some search tools, but really, more significantly, they get a distribution channel they can control for their marketing departments.

Web 2.0/3.0 isn't my domain really. I focus on media entertainment and tech convergence but I wrote an article on this deal on my site that details this marketing theory for the purchase and puts some real numbers behind it. My theory may be wrong but it gives one plausible explanation for why this deal fits with eBay more than many of their others and the . If people want to see the analysis it's here on my site Metue.com.