What kind of startups is eBay interested in?

Chris Caceres · January 21, 2009 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/65f

Director of Corporate Strategy, Erik Stuart, talks about what's hot in commerce

Erik Stuart, director of corporate strategy for eBay is always looking for companies the Internet giant can aquire. His job is to look at startups and determine whether they fit into the eBay fold. In this interview with Bambi Francisco, Stuart shared what kind of companies and services eBay will be keeping a close eye on in 2009.

"eBay is always looking for good companies that are good business opportunities and can improve our capabilities," explained Stuart. These fell under the category of what he described as, Exploratory shopping. "Exploratory shopping," Stuart explained could mean, "visual search, social shopping, or any better way to browse products." Some of the companies he specifically mentioned which fall under this category were:

ThisNext- which gives recommendations from individual people they think may match the user's taste.

Stylefeeder- which delivers automated recommendations for products based on a collaborative filtering mechanism.

Kaboodle- which presents recommenations based on presentations of personal wishlists.

Is eBay keeping a close watch on these companies? The answer is Yes. Stuart explained, "We'll keep an eye on all these types of companies and once one of them starts showing user traction, eBay will be right on it."

So why is eBay yet to acquire any of these 'up and coming' startups attempting to change the way we shop online?

Stuart believes none of the companies in this current trend are compelling enough yet. Many startups are looking for exits in 2009, and unfortunately Stuart explained he's seen less innovation recently as opposed to 3 years ago pointing out the fact that valuations are less "insane" than they were 9 to 12 months ago.

All in all, Stuart established the fact that, "Good companies that are showing business success are still going to command a reasonable price for an exit."

eBay is set to report Q4 results at the close of day Wednesday.

Check out the video for the full interview.

Chris Caceres

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Kaboodle

Startup/Business

Joined Vator on April 25, 2008

Way back in 2004, Manish and his wife, Asha, grew frustrated during the remodeling of their home. They found the process of sharing and discovering new products and retailers that matched their personal sense of taste and style difficult. As it stood, the online shopping platforms were weak and most sites just compiled product catalogs, leaving people to fend for themselves in a sea of information. Finding and keeping track of one's favorite products online and deciding what to buy was a painful and inefficient experience. So, in 2005, Manish and co-founders Keiron and Chetan, who both shared his vision of a new approach to online shopping, got together to transform the process into a more social and much simpler experience.

Kaboodle is a social shopping community where people discover, recommend and share products. Kaboodle's powerful shopping tools allow people to organize their shopping through lists, discover new things from people with similar style, get discounts on popular products and find best prices. At the heart of Kaboodle is a fun and engaging community of people who love to shop. Community members create and join groups, share advice, feedback and product suggestions and personalize their profiles with polls and other widgets. Kaboodle was launched in 2006 and has 500,000 registered users and over 6 million monthly visitors.