Re: eBay continues to be down

Michael Stutz (stutz@dsl.org)
Fri, 11 Jun 1999 13:54:03 -0400 (EDT)


On Fri, 11 Jun 1999, Rasheed Baqai wrote:

> Not surprisingly, it's stock, while having fallen, doesn't seem to have
> taken as big effect as I believe is warrented for such a situation. I
> think it is partially due to the fact that many eBay stockholders don't
> even visit the site.

This is the danger of "electronic communities" that are really corporations:
the members of the community are not in control of their environment; the
stockholders are. That is not a community. (I wonder if you can start an
online auction site as a a cooperative.)

I wonder if eBay's stock hasn't fallen because it is still king of the
online auctions -- I mean, where else are all these people going to go
instead, Yahoo Auctions?