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eBay CEO: Amazon Drones Are Fantasy

Posted by samzenpus on from the pie-in-the-sky dept.

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."

8 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds familiar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Sounds familiar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    2. Re:Sounds familiar by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "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)

  2. eBay innovation? by thatkid_2002 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't think I have seen *any* innovation or indication of long-term strategy from eBay. They seem to be basically the same as they were in 2000.

    1. Re:eBay innovation? by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  3. irony by apcullen · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  4. The Drones Worked As Planned by BigDogCH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. THE POINT OF THE AMAZON ANNOUNCEMENT by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."