eBay Comes Full Circle

In 2003, I put together an analysis of the impact of eBay and Craigslist on the newspaper industry. In short, I concluded that the private party business for newspapers was about to go over the cliff. Not quite the answer the requesting audience had expected.

This morning’s news that eBay has launched an online automobile selling site closes the loop. eBay Motors has developed what might be called Craigslist for Cars, a local classified ad section for individual sellers.

The site is intended to connect buyers and sellers within a 100-mile radius of their local markets.

Losing private party auto liner ads will negatively impact the print ad revenues from dealers. The readership of those auto classified pages with their large dealer display ads is bolstered by the liner ads placed by private parties. As the liner business slips away, so does the readership and the response advertisers can expect from their ads.

It is not a surprise that eBay would finally take a shot at the private party liner ads. I’m just wondering what took so long.