(Yet Another) eBay Loses Ground to Amazon (Article)

[mandy]

... in an unmistakable sign that Internet companies are indeed exposed to the gathering economic storm stemming from the credit crisis, Ms. Whitman’s successor, John J. Donahoe, laid off 10 percent of eBay’s 16,000 employees last Monday.

Mr. Donahoe noted that eBay was already feeling the effects of the downturn. “This looks like it is going to be a more typical economic cycle that impacts consumer spending,” he said. “We are not immune.”...

E-commerce, though, was once thought to be a refuge from economic storms. People who stay away from the mall might actually be more tempted to shop online and hunt for deals, or so the thinking went.

But analysts are now revisiting that assumption. Many consumers, citing an uncertain economy, say they will clutch their wallets tightly this holiday season regardless of where they shop: 48 percent surveyed recently by eBillme, an online payment service, said they planned to delay purchases...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/business/12giants.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

[sneakymagenta]

Today, its [EBAY] total of 84.5 million active users is barely ahead of the 81 million active customer accounts that Amazon reported in June.

Tomorrow it will be behind.