With around 40 million monthly users, Ebay classifieds is one of the most visited websites in Germany. In the future, the portal will do without Ebay.
In the financial world, the billion dollar sale of eBay’s advertising division to the Norwegian online marketplace Adevinta made big headlines just over a year ago.
After all, the world’s largest operator of online classifieds portals put around 9.2 billion dollars in cash and stocks on the table. Two activist groups of investors had urged Ebay to sell larger businesses and cash in.
However, the separation of Ebay and Ebay classified ads has not yet reached many users, although it has now been formally implemented. This was also noticed by Paul Heimann, who has been managing Ebay Classifieds since the beginning of 2019 as managing director in Kleinmachnow just outside Berlin: “Customers on the street sometimes say Ebay when they actually mean classifieds.” By 2024 at the latest, confusion will hardly be possible, because the name will change: “For a period of three years we will be able to use the brand name Ebay classifieds as it is – with the logo and everything that goes with it.”
Many years ago not only Ebay but also numerous publishers recognized that the classifieds business would increasingly take place on the Internet. Print advertising papers such as “Avis”, “The Hot Wire” or “Quoka” had their own online portals for a long time when Ebay classifieds began more than ten years ago. Private classified ads in print were already at a low level back then and have continued to collapse over the past ten years and are often only relevant in niche areas.
On the other hand, professional portals such as the online job exchange Stepstone or Immowelt.de, which belong to the Axel Springer Verlag, are more successful. The fiercest competitor of Ebay classifieds is now the Facebook group, which operates a digital flea market with its marketplace. The exact number of users of the US marketplace in Germany is not publicly known, as Facebook does not communicate it.
Ebay classified ads now reach around 66 percent of German Internet users. In the initial phase, it was mainly private advertisements that attracted private interested parties. The portal now has more than 45 million ads that are constantly updated. Every day around a million new ads are placed, which, unlike auctions and sales promotions on the site of the former parent company Ebay, are free.
The website is no longer just a digital flea market. Because even the professionals have discovered the portal. “Classified ads have an enormous reach,” says Heimann. “This is of course also highly relevant for people who sell real estate or cars, for example. This also applies to people who offer services, to craftsmen from painters to tilers. ” The portal is No. 1 for privately owned used cars ahead of its sister company mobile.de and AutoScout24 and is one of the top 3 portals for real estate. Service packages for this professional target group have become the classifieds company’s most important source of income.
The success story of Ebay classifieds cannot be separated from attempted fraud and harassment. “Unfortunately, there are always attempts to defraud purchases and sales via classified ads on the Internet,” warns the Hessen consumer protection agency. If the alleged prospects are abroad, so that a personal handover is never possible, this should make consumers suspicious. Attempting to use another channel for communication is also suspect. “For example, criminals often only briefly ask whether the article is still available and ask for an answer by email or WhatsApp. They accept any price and try to fake a transfer with forged documents so that the item is sent to the dispatcher too quickly. ”
Most recently, the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office warned of a scam, which not only affects eBay classified ads, but all classified ads portals. Fraudsters buy things offered without asking too much, but ask to send the goods to a friend as a supposed gift. In addition, users are asked to obtain a prepaid card from an online service and enclose it with the shipment. But the payment offered for it bursts later. The victims have lost their goods and vouchers.
The company has now responded to the incidents. “We are now offering a payment function with an escrow function and will also work with logistics partners so that users can send things conveniently and securely,” says Heimann. Artificial intelligence also helps identify offers that are too good to be true. This applies, for example, to super bargains such as a new iPhone 12 for only 400 euros, where the suspicion is in the room that the providers only want to cash in, but never want to deliver.
Artificial intelligence also helps Ebay classifieds to identify sexual harassment in the classifieds themselves or in chat histories. “But that is much more complex than identifying a dubious offer for an iPhone, because human language is so complex.” Therefore, a team has been set up to take care of these cases.
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