Whitman and her managers also described efforts to make the site’s auction feature available on social network pages, blogs, as well as Web sites and stores outside of eBay via widgets—those increasingly popular small programs that enable users to easily share content and incorporate it into their own Web sites.
“But we are also not averse to taking eBay off eBay, whether that is to some of the social networking sites or exporting it to your Web site with eBay To Go [a widget that enables users to embed eBay auctions into their own Web sites and blogs].”
eBay’s revenue model is not tied to its website at all, but to the very core of its business – transactions. This is a far more durable model than most online services today, where the core business generates little or no money, and the only revenue comes from advertising on the website. In other words, the revenue side of the firm has no relation to the business side.
In eBay’s case, though, it makes perfect sense to create as many opportunities to transact as is possible, and that calls for maximum exposure via as many channels as are available today. In that sense, Meg’s got her strategy bang on target.