amazon soars, ebay falls
I believe we can learn our lesson from this. Do not force customers to use your products and constantly hit them with fees. Listen to customer complaints and try to make their life easier. Do not constantly threaten customers like ebay does.
Both amazon and ebay were 90's companies that did well in the internet boom, but now we see that amazon is gaining ground while big power sellers are leaving ebay. I have used both for many years; ebay as a big seller, and amazon as an affiliate.
With ebay it was always a headache and they did not want me to use paypal back in the day, but to use their product billpoint, then they bought up paypal and got rid of billpoint - typical ebay. The company was always threatening people to kick them out because they had a link back to their site, or the website URL on a photo of a product, etc.
As an amazon aff, I have never been threatened or told that my clicks come from a bad neighborhood, or that a person buying a product is a family member, or any excuse to not pay me, in fact, the money is direct deposit into my checking account.
When we build up our internet business, it is important to look at these two models. This way we see how a company that was doing great in the 90's - ebay has allowed itself to fall apart in the 21st century.
The most important lesson to learn is listen to your customer.
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