WEBVTT - Caught up with eBay 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.880 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.079 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.520 how Stuff Works in a love all things tech, and 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:24.599 today we're going to conclude our series on eBay and 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.280 bring it up to date. We're up to two thousand 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.640 seven in the saga of eBay, but we're gonna really 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.040 toward two thousand fifteen or so. We're really gonna be 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.840 jumping ahead quite a bit. But this would be Meg 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.320 Whitman's last year as president and CEO of eBay in 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.840 two thousand seven. That same year, eBay purchased stub Hub. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.879 StubHub is an online ticket exchange company and provides a 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:53.159 marketplace for buyers and sellers of tickets for various live events. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.400 The company started back in two thousand when to Stanford 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:01.000 Business School graduates named Eric Baker and Jeff Fleurs an opportunity, 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.360 and by two thousand five, StubHub was generating two hundred 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:09.160 million dollars in sales. Now, not everything was going smoothly 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.840 for StubHub. In that time. Some people had used the 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.600 service to sell counterfeit tickets others found that they were 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.479 being penalized by major sports teams for getting a season ticket. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.120 They would go out and buy a season ticket to 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.440 a sports team, then they would sell their regular season 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.880 seats on StubHub per game. So let's say I get 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.440 a season ticket to the Braves, for example, and then 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:39.160 on individual games, I'm selling my seats to anyone who 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.240 goes through on StubHub, and I make a profit because individually, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.960 selling those seats over and over again, I make more 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.680 money than it cost for me to get the season tickets. Well, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.520 the New York Yankees suspended dozens of season ticket holders 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.840 rights to attend playoff games after finding out they had 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.280 been selling regular season seats and denied them the opportunity 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.560 to renew their season tickets. So once people cut onto that, 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.400 they said, well, you know, we went went, We're going 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.080 to the playoffs, but you don't get to see it 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.560 because you've been selling your seats to other people and 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.560 that's against our rules. Where we can make tons of 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:17.760 money selling seats, but you sure as heck can't. Yeah, anyway, UM, 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.519 I have different feelings about this, largely because it's very 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.120 hard to go see a live theater show particularly at 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:29.520 a notable venue like on Broadway, without paying crazy amounts 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.240 of money for a ticket, Because you have people buying 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.440 up seats and then reselling them out of markup price, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.280 and it's it's pretty infuriating at the same time seeing 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.799 people get punished for doing this. It's interesting, like it 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.320 opens up a gray area, like where is it legal 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.720 versus illegal? Anyway, I guess for season tickets there are 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:54.760 specific their specific wording involved when you purchase those season passes, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.240 and that's what tells you that you're not supposed to 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.800 do this sort of thing. StubHub in the New England 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.200 pay Trips got into legal battles over the rights to 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:07.040 resell tickets, issues with voided tickets, claims of unfair trade practices, 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.960 and more, and ultimately the courts decided against stub Hub. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.799 That wouldn't happen until two thousand nine, though, so that 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:18.280 would be after eBay had already purchased them. eBay bought 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.640 stub Hub for three hundred ten million dollars, a princely 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.880 some in two thousand eight. We'd get another new president 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.440 for PayPal with Scott Thompson. Jeff Jordan had been president 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.840 from two thousand four to two thousand and six and 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.840 regive Doda from two thousand six to two thousand eight. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.839 Now remember PayPal was now part of eBay. Jordan's had 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.840 gone on to lead Open Table, and Doddo would move 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.040 into an executive vice president position with the parent company 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.360 of eBay. Thompson would serve as president of PayPal until 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.800 two thousand twelve, when he would leave to become the 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:55.560 CEO of a different company, one that has struggled famously 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.880 over the last few years. Yahoo. In March two thousand eight, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.720 Meg Whitman stepped down as president and CEO of eBay 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.240 and John Donahoe absumed that role. And when Whitman joined eBay, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.960 it was a company of about thirty employees. By the 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:16.080 time she left, eBay had grown into a global corporation 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:21.960 with more than fifteen thousand employees valued at forty billion dollars. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.279 The company's growth had slowed quite a bit, but to 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.440 be fair, it had such an explosive growth period when 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.640 it was expanding into new markets it would have been 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.760 unrealistic to expect that pace to continue at that particular rate. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.120 Whitman had led eBay into many new business ventures, and 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.160 she had opened operations throughout the world. One of her regrets, however, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.320 was her failure to establish eBay as an effective presence 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.279 in Japan early on. According to Whitman, her opportunity to 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.080 get into Japan coincided with the site's blackout crashes in 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.360 that I talked about in an earlier episode. The company 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.599 had to switch focus to fixing its infrastructure and improving 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.120 reliability and lost the chance to get its foothold in Japan. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.720 At that time, the company had established a Japanese site, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.479 but without proper support, the outlet didn't do very well, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.920 and ultimately Women chose to to close up shop in Japan. 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.640 It wouldn't be until two thousand nine when eBay would 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.320 create some partnerships with local companies in Japan then managed 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.799 to get back into that market, and it wasn't until 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:31.040 February before eBay announced it would acquire a company called 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.400 Geosis g I O s I S that conducted e 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.560 commerce in Japan that would really get to try again. 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.720 With Japan identified as the third fastest growing e commerce 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.400 region in the world, it marked a pretty late start 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.880 for eBay to get into that region. Women had a 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.839 bit of a mixed reputation among eBay users, the actual 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.080 buyers and sellers on the site. For one thing, there 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.560 was no denying the company had grown significantly under her leadership, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.840 but she also had made choices that at times upset 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.200 the community. For example, at one point, she gave Disney 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.560 its own auctions page, which many saw as preferential treatment 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.920 that put normal sellers at a disadvantage. They didn't get 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.600 the platform that Disney had, and of course Disney is 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.800 a multibillion dollar corporation, so it felt like they were 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.440 being shoved aside. And plus, Whitman had actually worked for 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.120 Disney in the past before she came to eBay, so 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.760 there was that element as well. However, Whitman actually paid 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.839 attention to reactions and she backed off of her decision. 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:41.000 She reversed it, so it's not like she was saying 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.440 it's my way or the highway. She actually did listen 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.640 to the community and she paid attention. After her departure, 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.840 Meg Whitman ran for governor of California in the twenty 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.960 ten gubernatorial race. She ran as a Republican and largely 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.440 funded her own campaign out of her own money. Ultimately, 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.359 she would lose to Jerry Brown, the Democrat. Ended it 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.039 for a governor, and Whitman would go on to support 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.560 Mitt Romney during his bids for presidency. In the election, however, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.880 she famously supported Hillary Clinton rather than the Republican candidate 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:16.080 Donald Trump. Starting in September twenty eleven, Whitman served as 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:20.320 the CEO of Hewlett Packard. She did not get rave reviews, 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.239 and Hewlett Packard didn't do so well in the following years, 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.720 and Whitman shouldered a lot of that blame, perhaps unfairly. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.320 She would step down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprises 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.240 on February one, eighteen. John Donahoe was now the man 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.640 in charge. So here's just a little bit more about him. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.080 He was born in Evison Evanston, Illinois. He worked at 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.560 a beer distribution company out of high school before he 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.480 became an associate consultant with a company called Bayne and Company. 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.880 He started there in nineteen eighty two and worked his 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.960 way up the chain, eventually becoming the CEO of the 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.320 entire company in nineteen From there, he joined eBay as 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.160 the president of eBay market Places. During his tenure as 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.160 the president and CEO of all of eBay, which lasted 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.200 nearly seven and a half years, he more than doubled 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.400 the revenues of the company to eighteen billion dollars, and 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.120 he saw eBay's market value hit eighty billion. He would 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.360 step down as president in but he joined the board 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.440 of directors for PayPal as the chairman at that time. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.160 Now it's easy to forget this, but back in two 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.000 thousand eight, the app store for the iPhone was brand new. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.480 It was a new thing. It did not launch with 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.200 the first iPhone. It was only available starting with the 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.439 second generation iPhone, also known as the iPhone three G. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.200 eBay was one of just a handful of companies that 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.280 had an application ready at launch, and in fact, it 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.800 got featured a bit during Apple's unveiling. Also in two 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.680 thousand eight, eBay made more acquisitions, including a company called 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.400 bill Me Later and e commerce company uh. They made 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.920 that act position for nearly one billion dollars. Bill Me 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.040 Later is a credit company. As the name would suggest, 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.800 you get billed later on, and the way it works 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.080 is that if you choose bill me Later as an 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.120 option when you're checking out, the service asked you for 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.559 your birth date and the last four digits of your 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.240 Social Security number, and then it runs a quick credit 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.920 check on you, and assuming the credit check is favorable, 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.440 you are credited the money for the purchase, and then 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.280 you pay back the service with interest. Of course, that's 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.520 how it makes money. However, eBay also at this time 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.559 laid off about ten percent of its workforce, which equalled 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:41.440 around one thousand, six hundred employees. The company focused most 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.920 of the layoffs on the marketplace division, as that was 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.240 the department that had slowed in growth the most to 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:50.840 two single digit rates. It was still growing, but at 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.360 a very slow pace. eBay would hold another big round 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.800 of layoffs in firing about two thousand, four hundred employees 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.880 on that go around, which represented about seven percent of 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.280 its workforce at the time. So you see how big 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.480 the company grew in the meantime. If ten percent is 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.559 sixteen hundred back at this point and then in two thousand, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.200 four hundred is only seven, I mean, that's that's that 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.920 shows you the company did grow even after this this 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.840 round of layoffs. Regarding the two thousand eight layoffs, Donajo 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.360 said it was necessary to quote improve our operations and 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.280 strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth end quote. 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.280 So in other words, he wanted to make sure that 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.960 the company was focusing on the areas that were developing 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:41.360 the fastest and to stop pouring resources into areas that 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.160 had really plateaued. One last thing about two thousand eight. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.240 In November of two eight, a seller named Jack Sheng 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.880 became the first seller on eBay to get a feedback 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:58.000 score of one million. You remember that Pierre Omidier had 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.839 created this feedback ability where you could give someone a 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:06.480 positive or negative one in feedback. So Jack Shang had 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:11.480 received at least one million plus one votes. Uh, maybe 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.880 more than that, because if some people had given negative 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.000 feedback then that would have taken away from the total. 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.199 So once he hit one million, eBay honored him by 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.520 naming a conference room after him over at eBay headquarters. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.959 Now I've gotta more to say about eBay, but before 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.000 I get into it, let's take a quick break to 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:38.840 thank our sponsor. eBay launched a program in two thousand 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:43.280 nine inside the company called the Women's Initiative Network or WIN, 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.360 which provides opportunities and career development training for women interested 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.000 in building a career in any department within the company, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.520 which I think is pretty cool and in fact, one 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.920 thing I have to say about eBay is whether or 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.480 not you like the site or the service, whether or 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.200 not you've ever done an auction, there are shop there. 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.880 The company itself has a reputation for promoting fairness in 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.120 its UH and its corporation among its employees. So everything 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:16.040 from giving special opportunities for people to pursue training career development, 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.960 making certain that people are not being treated unfairly due 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:26.080 to ethnicity or gender, or sexuality or any of those things. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.520 It's really interesting and really admirable. So whether or not 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.960 you like the company, at least the policies that the 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:33.959 company has put in place, I think have been really 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.559 progressive and I like that a lot. Two thousand nine 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.040 was also the year eBay sold the majority of Skype 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.120 to a group of private investors. I mentioned this in 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.319 the previous episode and how initially it looked like eBay 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.440 was going to take a huge loss on the purchase 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:54.200 and failed integration of Skype. However, Microsoft's bid a little 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.079 bit later to buy up Skype for more than eight 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.360 billion dollars would end up offsetting that. Ex events, they 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.840 ended up making enough money on the UH the amount 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.560 of Skype they may they retained because they only sold 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.480 a majority of their steak in two thousand nine, they 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.320 kept about thirty five percent, and when Microsoft bought up 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.000 all of it later for eight billion dollars, they sold 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.199 it off in and it turned out that the difference 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:24.640 more than paid off for their initial purchase of Skype, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.120 even after you factor in things like the debt that 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.920 needed to be paid off and and taxes and things 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.760 like that. In two thousand ten, eBay got hit with 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:38.319 a patent infringement lawsuit from a company called XPRT Ventures 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.480 ll C. This story let me down a real rabbit 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.319 hole and research, because I saw plenty of news reports 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.559 from two thousand ten about the lawsuit being filed, but 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.160 not nothing really substantial about how it all shook out. 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.160 And as it turns out, the reason for that part 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.640 is that it's eight years later and the lawsuit is 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.960 still going on. So what is actually at the heart 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.800 of this lawsuit. Well, xp RT Ventures, which as far 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.160 as I can tell, is a company that has patents 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:10.080 but doesn't actually do anything else, sued eBay for three 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.920 point eight billion dollars in twenty ten. An alleged that 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.400 the company was infringing upon several patents and had stolen 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:21.480 trade secrets. According to the complaint, the patent holders met 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.400 with eBay in two thousand one and showed a law 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.320 firm claiming to represent eBay the patent applications for some 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.560 of the patents they had been filing for online payments. Then, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.320 the complaint alleges that eBay used that information later when 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.280 eBay incorporated some PayPal functionality into its own e commerce 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.280 payment platform several years later. Now the plot thickens. The 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:49.880 actual patents were rejected multiple times during this application process. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.240 The final patent was accepted in two thousand nine. The 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.960 website tech Dirt pointed out that the finalized patent, the 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.800 one that actually would be protected from infringement, was different 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:07.080 from the original filing, the one that eBay supposedly took 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.280 a look at and then later infringed. So, in other words, 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.840 the the wording that was present in two thousand one 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.440 uh that was that had changed by the time the 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.040 patent was finally accepted, because it had been revised multiple 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.320 times until accepted in two thousand nine. Other outlets outright 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.440 called xp RT a patent troll. A patentrol is a 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.400 person or a company that files or buys patents with 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.120 no intent to produce anything from them, but rather use 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.240 them to threaten litigation against others in order to win 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.080 court cases or more likely get a settlement out of court. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.880 You could also license patents to companies, and in fact, 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.840 there are a lot of companies that do licensed patents 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.240 out to other people or other organizations. But there's a 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:58.880 disturbing trend among certain groups to kind of hoard these 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.400 patents and just wait for someone to do something that 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.160 appears to violate them or to infringe upon them, and 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.760 then they threaten legal action. And some companies, rather than 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.200 going through the process of having to defend themselves in court, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.120 which is incredibly expensive and time consuming, will just end 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.160 up coming to an agreement for an out of court settlement. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.640 And that's how these companies make their money. They don't 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:28.040 make it by producing something or building anything, or licensing 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.840 and you know, ideas out to other people, or rather 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.880 patents patents aren't really for ideas, it's it's the implementation 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.120 of an idea. Instead, they wait for someone to do 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.440 something that looks like it's an infringement and then they 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.960 go after them and with the hope of an out 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.880 of court settlement or maybe a court award if the 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:51.040 whole case goes to decision. The most recent information I 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.120 could find about this involved eBay arguing that the patents 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:59.240 in question contain unpatentable materials such as abstract ideas you 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:05.320 cannot patent and abstract idea. That information all came to 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.919 light back in the spring of at least that was 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.560 where the documents I found were. That's when they were 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.159 filed was in So this is still unfolding as I 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.639 record this, and I have to admit I haven't read 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.359 all the legal proceedings. It would take me days to 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:26.040 go through it all, or even the full two page complaint, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.919 because that was it was enormous. It could well be 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.880 that XPRT has a valid argument here, So I don't 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:33.520 want to give you guys the feeling that the whole 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.520 thing is without merit. That might not be the case. 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.639 There may be a real legit case behind xp rt 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.359 s allegations. I am amazed that this battle is stretched 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.399 into twentyen though, because typically you would see either a 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.840 settlement in this case, you would argue that, well, it's 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:55.359 because eBay is fully confident that they did not do 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.320 anything wrong and therefore they are defending themselves, um or 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.200 you would see the accusers dropped the case because it 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.679 would just get so expensive to continue. But neither of 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.520 those things have happened. Yet another legal issue that began 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.000 to broil back in twenty ten would eventually scoop up eBay. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.960 It was a antitrust action from the United States Department 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.160 of Justice, and later it would inspire a class action 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:27.280 lawsuit brought against several companies in the tech space, including eBay, Lucasfilm, Apple, 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.320 and Google, among others. I think Intel was in there too, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.280 but the charge was that these companies were colluding with 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.960 one another in an agreement to not conduct cold call 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.320 recruitment efforts with each other's talent. So, in other words, 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.399 these companies were not supposed to try and hire talent 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.199 away from each other, which on the corporate level seems 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.400 like it's all fair, right, You would say, oh, well, 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.000 of course, it's not really fair for Intel to go 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.399 after Google, or a Google to go after Apple, and 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.640 so on and so forth. But then if you look 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.000 at it from the perspective of the employees, you would argue, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.960 wait a minute, this is denying people the opportunity to 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.160 potentially improve their careers, to go and get a more 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:11.080 competitive salary or a more fulfilling job somewhere, and that 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.160 was in fact the basis of the argument both from 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.360 the Department of Justice and the class action lawsuit. The 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.320 Department of Justice suit was settled pretty much the day 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.760 it was filed. The class action lawsuit also went into 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.360 settlement with various companies paying out to the sixty four 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:31.320 thousand or so employees who were represented in the suit. UH, 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:36.520 but it all depended upon individual UH companies and the 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.240 percentages of that sixty four thousand because not all of 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.040 them worked for the same company. Obviously. Also in eBay's 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.000 app would launch on the iPad, that was a brand 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:50.720 new product in and the company acquired Milo dot com 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.040 and that was a local shopping service. The service would 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.480 let shoppers research products and compare prices to buy locally 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.639 with real time availability information and so it kind of 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.800 go through the inventory of various local stores and you 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.240 could price do price comparison right there before heading out 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.760 of your house to go and actually buy something. eBay 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.159 bought Milo dot Com for reported seventy five million bucks, 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:15.840 and that was just one of many acquisitions eBay made 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.680 during this period. And to go through every single one 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.199 of them would be pretty bonkers. Also, a lot of 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.320 them were, you know, like commerce sites or data and 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.440 analysts sites, things that most of us don't have any 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.040 connection to, and it wouldn't really be meaningful to go 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:32.800 into it anyway. But I will hit some of the 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.760 ones that are super important, because uh, I think we 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:38.800 need to at least acknowledge a few of them. But 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:41.000 I'm just not going to do another episode on eBay 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.480 right away, so we're not gonna go through every single one. 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.479 So let's keep on trucking. Uh. We're up to two 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:49.960 thousand eleven now, and I'm gonna go fairly fast from 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.240 this point and just hit the big story points. In 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.959 two thousand eleven, eBay continued its acquisitions, including the purchase 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.560 of a majority stake in the online marketplace Giddy Giddy Your, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.479 which is based in Turkey and I only included it 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:07.840 because that name is awesome. Uh. Then in two thousand twelve, 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.240 eBay launched PayPal Here, a system that would allow small 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.119 businesses to accept PayPal as a payment option. Some analysts 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.480 began to worry that eBay might be pushing PayPal to 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.119 move beyond its scope of services to the detriment of 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.800 its core business. David Marcus would become the president of 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.120 PayPal in two thousand twelve, and then in two thousand thirteen, 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:31.199 eBay would acquire Braintree, a company called Braintree for eight 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:37.119 million dollars. Braintree is a payment processing service that automates 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.960 online payments, including stuff like recurring billing. I include it 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.720 here because Braintree also was the parent company of Venmo. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.680 Venmo is a payment transfer service that lets you send 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:55.160 money directly to another Venmo user, and it's an easy 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:59.280 way to transfer money between average, everyday people right. It 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.639 was created by some developers who saw the opportunity for 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.320 a way that the average person could send somebody else 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.520 some money. Let's say that you go out for an 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.679 evening with a friend of yours and you realize, oh, no, 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.160 I left my wallet at home, and your friends says, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.720 we'll tell you what, I'll spot you tonight and you'll 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.880 just owe me. Venmo was a way that you could 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:21.000 very quickly send money from an account to your friends account, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:23.280 so that you could pay them back and not have 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.480 that just sit over your head like an evil ax 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:30.159 over your friendship, threatening to follow at any moment. H 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:36.040 So now PayPal would actually own Venmo, which actually makes 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.159 me chuckle a bit, because I know some young folks 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.000 who would turn their nose up at paypalty said, oh 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.119 that's I would never use PayPal. I use Venmo, And 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.880 they clearly did not realize the Venmo was owned by PayPal. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.480 I just find that amusing. But then I'm old and grouchy, 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.960 so to pay that with a grain of salt. Also 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.720 in eBay launched a new venture called digital Storefronts. The 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.480 store of friends were really interactive screens that showed various products, 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.080 and customers could order them by going up to the 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.679 screen and touching using gesture controls that would send information 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:12.440 to the customer's mobile device, and then they could use 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.600 PayPal on the mobile device to actually pay for the 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.560 thing and arrange for a delivery to their homes. Later 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:22.159 on a post on the Forrester dot com blog, in 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:27.120 stated that this experiment really failed to deliver additional value 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:31.399 to the shopping experience, that it was trying too hard 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:35.600 to change things. But they they said that there was 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:38.400 an update to this strategy that was much more effective. 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:43.840 It was an integration in a Rebecca Minkoff store in Soho, 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:47.720 in which the digital windows inside the store provided contextual 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:50.240