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Ebay saint lazarus saint3/17/2024 ![]() ![]() “If a product is built with no go-to-market team…does it even exist?” - MD “If a tree falls in the forest with no one around. We are so grateful to Stanford's support and partnership on this!) ![]() (A special thanks to Kathleen Lehman and Jim Simmons for making this happen. The innovation in the space is really exciting and I'm going to go ahead and say it: eCommerce is cool again!īecause of the overwhelming response, we’ve decided to turn this into a series with Stanford! What would you like to hear about in our next panel (ie, AI, Leadership, Women in Business, Creators, Social Media, etc? Let me know in the comments below. And in true Stanford fashion, we even had some incredible entrepreneurs join us to pitch their latest retail tech startups. We covered everything from AI infra to launching a brand with the Kardashians. It was incredible hosting this discussion on the future of Retail with literally the best and the brightest in the industry: Julie Bornstein Bridget Dolan Dawn Dobras Mike Forbes Christina Melas-Kyriazi #platforms #marketplaces #socialmedia #ecommerceĪ packed audience for the first Harvard Business School- Stanford University Graduate School of Business collab event ever last night! IMO if today’s platforms took a step back, and approached their marketplace with intention and thoughtfulness, they could actually create a meaningful incremental revenue for themselves *and* their partners.īut then again that would require them to think long-term and show altruism… two things for which they’ve never really cared. Having worked at some of the largest platform companies, I think the sense of genuine care for users and partners has been lost as everyone is sprinting to revenue goals and fighting PR fires. The incentives are very clearly misaligned: creators and platform partners are not fairly compensated *and* they no longer need Instagram like they once did users are thought of as not much more than the reach of their optical nerves and thumbs but in reality they have the ability to take their time-spent elsewhere and platforms, instead of facilitating the marketplace, are actually participating and competing. ![]() They’re going to be consistently squeezed to benefit the platform. Users and creators/businesses, well, they’re just the supply. In this sort of a three-sided marketplace, there’s only one winner: the platform itself. Instagram wants to profit off its users’ eyeballs milk its partners for ads revenue / rev shares oh, *and* it wants to disintermediate the two and own all the data in the process. Unlike eBay which simply facilitated the union of supply and demand, Amazon actively competes with its sellers Instagram, too, has skin in the game. Today’s platforms disguise themselves as two-sided marketplaces but they’re actually three-sided: users, suppliers (businesses and creators), and the platform itself. If you think about it, today’s platforms ( Instagram, YouTube, TikTok etc) are also marketplaces: where demand (eyeballs) meet supply (content).īut these platforms, in my opinion, are dysfunctional marketplaces. That level of care was built into our jobs, incentives, and culture at the company too. It involved a perfect balance of practical business incentives and a culture of deep care for its partners.ĮBay sellers were incentivized via promotions and distribution opportunities buyers were incentivized by discounting, trust guarantees, and selection.ĮBay also just simply cared for its marketplace participants, and it showed in the health of the marketplace. Not only did they pioneer the concept though, they figured out how to make it have staying power. ![]() And today’s platforms could sure learn a lot from the company.ĮBay pioneered something that’s still driving today’s digital economy: the marketplace. I spent the formative years of my career at eBay. ![]()
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