Yahoo & eBay vs. Microsoft, Google?
Yahoo and eBay formed a cross-promotional pact designed to boost their competitive position against Microsoft and Google, according to Reuters.
Key aspects of the agreement, as outlined in the eBay press release:
1)Yahoo becomes the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical advertisements throughout the eBay.com site, and sponsored search for complementary products on some eBay.com search results pages in the U.S.
2) Yahoo enhances its search results for eBay.com to include more up-to-date product listings from eBay.com, enabling “shoppers to more easily find eBay listings”
3) Yahoo takes PayPal as exclusive third-party provider of its online wallet payment vehicle for Yahoo services and agrees to prominently promote PayPal across the Yahoo service network
4) Yahoo services will be integrated into a co-branded version of the eBay toolbar.
A collaboration between the online site that boasts, “One of every two Internet users around the world is using a Yahoo service each month," (as per Yahoo CEO Terry Semel during a conference call with analysts last month) and the online site that boasts “People spend more time on eBay than any other online site,” (as per eBay company overview), represents a formidable pooling of resources.
Given that Google continues to maintain a commanding lead in search, 43% market share vs. 28% market share for runner-up Yahoo last month, as reported in comScore’s, “Google Gains U.S. Search Market Share For Ninth Consecutive Month”, the ambiguity of eBay’s granting Yahoo exclusivity regarding “sponsored search for complementary products on some eBay.com search results pages in the U.S.” is not surprising: eBay is among Google’s largest advertisers.
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