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Why Are eBay Sellers Finding 100 Million Listings Amazing?

Why Are eBay Sellers Finding 100 Million Listings Amazing?
31 March 2010
EventHorizon1984

On March 30th eBay converted many product listings residing in seller stores to what are known as "Fixed Price listings."  Which garnered a few statistical observations.

An eBay Stores Discussion Board thread "March 30th is here, and now we know...." had itspostingtime start off with:

itspostingtime (Private)   View Listings  

Posts: 4,106

March 30th is here, and now we know....
Mar 30, 2010 8:12 AM

I obviously can't vouch for the accuracy of the count, but....

I just looked at the PSU chart. It indicates an increase between yesterday at this time and today of about 55%....a net gain between now and then of something like 55 million listings....for a total of about 101 million.

While on Power Sellers Unite, sammicat lead the thread "auction count off" with:

sammicat Red Star Total posts: 53

Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:02 pm Post subject:  auction count off? are the auction counts a little wonky? Does Ebay really have 101 million items listed now?

They are referring to eBay's "101 million" auction listing count on the PowerSellersUnite.com Auction site count chart.  That chart shows the number of eBay auctions at a specific point in time.  The posters are rightfully puzzled because auction listings are not "Fixed Price listings", i.e. the auction count should essentially be the same.

Well we won't talk about 'what's up?' with the statistics, but we will peer into how many listings can be found on eBay "on any given day"? 

In eBay CEO John Donahoe's first solo United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009", there is no mention of the number of listings on eBay.  As we tend to say, it's up the reader to figure out where this metric went.

Under the reign of eBay CEO Margaret Whitman, things were different in the SEC filings.  You will find in eBay's United States Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006" the following statement:

"On any given day, there are more than a hundred million items available through auction-style and fixed-price trading."

Which essentially matches the "101 million" count.

Here's the thing.  What to know what's in the 10-K filing for "the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008"?  The year Margaret Whitman stepped down and John Donahoe took over.

"Our Marketplaces platforms include more than 140.0 million listings on any given day and make available to our users a wide variety and selection of goods"

Either 40 million listings vanished, presuming the unlikely event that there was no increase in the number of listings during 2009, or eBay hasn't finished converting store products to fixed price listings.

eBay's listing count should be interesting to watch during April.

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Why You Should Never Turn Your Back To The Ocean

Why You Should Never Turn Your Back To The Ocean
29 March 2010
EventHorizon1984

There was more than a bit of irritation felt when the statue of Duke Kahanamoku was first placed in Waikiki; with his back to the ocean.  Years later passing by the Duke, it remains irritating.  In leu of someone or something turning the statue to properly face the ocean, we'll mitigate the irritation by writing something.

There are many sound reasons for the advice, "never turn your back to the ocean."  But words fail to crisply capture what is best explained by film.

• A photo series by A Pacific View captures a 'what could have happened'.
• A video by blakech demonstrating man versus Pacific Ocean.
• Sports Illustrated Jodi LaBossiere v. Ocean.

You're not much safer with your back to a fantasy ocean in a gaming environment either.

As the EverQuest 2 photo below might be captioned, "Why is everyone running?"

Ribet ...

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"It's not until you get back to nature that you realize that everything is out to get you. So my father always told me to respect nature, because it has no respect for you."
Dana Scully, X-Files, Quagmire

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PayPal India Personal Accounts Hold and the April 30th RBI Deadline

PayPal India Personal Accounts Hold and the April 30th RBI Deadline
17 March 2010
EventHorizon1984

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Now back to our irregular program.

We had expected the PayPal India debacle to fade into the background as PayPal (an eBay company) India slowly got it's Reserve Bank of India 2007 Payment and Settlement Systems Act (effective 12 August 2008) paperwork in order.

After all Farhad Irani provided PayPal India business customers withdrawl instructions on 1 March 2010 as promised.

And PayPal India spokesman Anuj Najar happily chirped:

We've Resumed Local Bank Withdrawls in India

 

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Hi blog readers, it’s Anuj from the comms team here. Following on from Farhad’s blog post on Monday, I’m pleased to let our customers in India know that we’ve resumed local bank withdrawals.

When you select the ‘Withdraw Funds’ option on your PayPal account, we will ask you to fill out a new field entitled ‘Purpose Code’.    This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions. Simply select the one most appropriate for your business.  More details on purpose codes can be found here ( http://www.paypal.com/in/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/popup/PurposeGroup_IN-outside )

If you have any questions, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

I’d like to apologize again on behalf of PayPal for all the inconvenience this has caused our customers.

Anuj

Hi blog readers, it’s Anuj from the comms team here.

Following on from Farhad’s blog post on Monday, I’m pleased to let the thousands of  businesses who rely on PayPal to sell their goods and services around the world know that we’ve resumed local bank withdrawals in India.

When you select the ‘Withdraw Funds’ option on your PayPal account, we will ask you to fill out a new field entitled ‘Purpose Code’.    This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions. Simply select the one most appropriate for your business.  More details on purpose codes can be found here

If you have any questions, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

I’d like to apologize once again on behalf of PayPal for all the inconvenience this has caused our customers.

Anuj

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 7:45 am

Which is fine for the "thousands of Indian businesses who use PayPal". 

But whatever happened to those personal accounts whose funds PayPal put on hold January 2010?

Farhad Irani, Head of PayPal Asia Pacific, wrote on 1 March 2010:

Q. I run a charity, and I am based in India. I don’t see the purpose code for donations and charities
A. PayPal can currently be used only as a gateway for payments of goods and services into India. We cannot process payments for charitable donations at this time.

Q. I used to use PayPal for Personal Inward Remittance to India. Now, my balances are stuck in PayPal
A. We are no longer able to complete these withdrawals to your bank account in India.  You do have the option to complete your withdrawals by check.  If you have any questions, we urge you to contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

Farhad Irani, Head of PayPal Asia Pacific, wrote on 26 February 2010:

"PayPal needs specific approvals to allow personal inward remittances to India, which we currently do not have. Until we get these approvals, personal payments into India will remain suspended."

Which brings up the question, PayPal says thousands of India business accounts but how many PayPal India personal accounts are there?

According to Anuj Nayar, PayPal Director of Global Communications, there are 1.6 million Indians signed up to PayPal.  With the caveat "not all of them are regular users".  We'll leave it to the reader to do some research as to how many regular PayPal personal account India users exist.

The India based IBNLive 16 March 2010 article "Has PayPal given you problems yet?" by Technology Correspondent Jaimon Joseph wrote:

"Within hours of reaching out to them, PayPal's PR team here patched me on a telephone call to Anuj Nayar, their Global Communications Head. He patiently explained the fracas to me, bit by bit, for the better part of an hour."

Which explained how he obtained that tantalizing 1.6 million fact.  And Mr. Joseph confirmed PayPal India's lack of paperwork being the reason for the transaction holds:

"I cross-checked my data with Alpana Killawala, at the Reserve Bank of India, I was in for a slight surprise. All money flowing across our borders is subject to two major laws. The Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the Payments and Settlements Act of 2007.

According to those laws, organizations like PayPal should have submitted themselves to scrutiny by the RBI. They hadn't, so they were pulled up. To prevent inconvenience to customers, the Reserve Bank has allowed PayPal to honour all transactions done upto January this year. But they're still on the watch list."

In other words 'pulled over for operating without a license'.  Solely the fault of the operator.

But Mr. Joseph also wrote something rather disquieting:

"If they don't satisfy all the bank's detailed questions by the thirtieth of April, their operations could be disrupted again!"

Now PayPal India payments were officially suspended on 27 January 2010, cause being operating with out a Payments and Settlements Act license.  The "thirtieth of April" is 90 days (give or take) after the suspension.  Ninety days being a sterotypical warning period. 

It appears PayPal was never in the clear to operate, but to "prevent inconvenience to customers" was given 90 days to comply with the law or face disruptions to PayPal's operations.

Interesting.

The clock is ticking PayPal India.  Get your act together.

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Apologies for the "transaction" typo in previous articles.

See Also

• PayPal India Farhad Irani Restores Business Bank Withdrawls But Hold On Personal Funds Remain
  
• PayPal India Service Hold Explained: 'We Don't Need No Stinking License'
• The PayPal India Suspended Transaction Services and Farhad Irani
• The PayPal India Transaction Holdup Continues
• The PayPal India Transaction Holdup

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"Delay or failure to receive such a license or regulatory approval could require PayPal to change its business practices or features in ways that would adversely affect PayPal’s international expansion plans, and could require PayPal to suspend providing products and services to customers in one or more countries."
John Donahoe, eBay CEO, 27 October 2009

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