eBay CEO: Amazon Drones Are Fantasy

angry tapir writes "In the race to deliver online shopping purchases faster, drones don't impress eBay's CEO. 'We're not focusing on long-term fantasies, we're focusing on things we can do today,' John Donahue said in an interview. He was reacting to an interview Jeff Bezos, CEO of e-commerce rival Amazon, gave last weekend in which he said Amazon is investigating the use of drones for package delivery."

Comments

Sounds familiar

[Anonymous Coward]

'We're not focusing on long-term fantasies, we're focusing on things we can do today,' -former Blockbuster CEO

Re:Sounds familiar

[Anonymous Coward]

-former Nokia CEO
-former Blackberry CEO
-former Bell CEO
-former (insert dead company name here) CEO

Re:Sounds familiar

[SJHillman]

"Then again eBay sell stuff differently."

That's the gist of it. Although Amazon has a ton of third party sellers, they're still the main vendor. eBay, however, is built to facilitate third party sellers. Amazon owning drones would be like any company having it's own fleet of delivery vehicles that go from centralized warehouses to individual consumers. eBay owning drones would be like competing the USPS, with completely decentralized pickup/dropoff points. If I order from Amazon, there's an excellent chance it's coming from a relatively nearby warehouse. If I order from eBay, there's an excellent chance it's coming from across the country. Right now, consumers might see ordering from eBay and Amazon the same because they're both delivered by FedEx/UPS/USPS, but the logistics before that last-mile delivery are completely different and that affects the viability of why Amazon is looking at drones (IE: delivery within X minutes/hours of ordering)

Re:Sounds familiar

[alexander_686]

We are not focusing on the next quarter, we are focusing on the next century – almost any Japanese CEO from the 80s, as they explained investments in real estate, AI, next gen mainframes, jets, robots, etc.

The rule of thumb is a 10 year time horizon for most projects. The further one plans out the shakier the assumptions are. Which is one of the reasons why I am for public spending on basic science and research. They are just looking to do cool things – the practical for profit stuff will follow.

irony

[apcullen]

Is it just me or is it ironic that this article directly follows another article titled "Studies show people are biased against creative thinking"?

The Drones Worked As Planned

[BigDogCH]

Isn't it a coincidence that it put Amazon on the news during the busiest shopping season of the year? Mission accomplished.

I saw my mother shopping on Amazon.com for the first time this weekend. I asked her about it (she always claimed to prefer brick-n-mortar). Her response was, "I was thinking this year I would give Amazon a try." Amazons marketing is working.

Re:eBay innovation?

[brunes69]

The only innovations eBay has done in the past 2-3 years are innovative ways to charge you more money when you sell things using their service. Amazon is eating their lunch and they know it. I have sold 3x as much random junk from my house on Amazon than on eBay in recent times.

THE POINT OF THE AMAZON ANNOUNCEMENT

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Was NOT to propose a "Drone Delivery Service" -

Instead it is a PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATION.

- 1 Normalize and socialize the idea of drones as a common, novel feature of US civilian airspace. Contextualize debate on practical advantage over risks and intrusion.

- 2 Position Amazon as a fixture in people's discourse and attention. First, during an expected competitive and difficult shopping season and ultimately for long-term.

Re:THE POINT OF THE AMAZON ANNOUNCEMENT

[Cid Highwind]

You missed the major one:

- 0 Counter negative points raised in "The Everything Store" and recent news stories about poor working conditions in Amazon warehouses. Steer the narrative about Amazon toward how they're building the shiny future instead of how they're out-Walmarting Walmart.