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

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.