lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But

Every business has to start somewhere. What truly makes this country great is the freedom of enterprenuership that every one of its citizens have. Capitalism at its best signifies the power of a single person to reach monumental goals and turning a simple idea into a huge corporation. But in our pursuit of this glorified state, have we snubbed the little guy?

Corporate earnings are billions of dollars a year for executives and shareholders. Online companies such as eBay, PayPal, Google, and Blockbuster have crushed the little guy beneath the giant wheels of change. What would have been important to the small companies as they used to be is a far cry from the values that these corporations embrace today. Will it always be this way? Change is inevitable, but does it really take stepping all on the individuals that got them there in order to succeed? It’s as if once a certain dollar amount is reached in net revenue, the blinders go on, and the company loses touch with the little guy.

EBay, Inc. began in 1995 with one little guy’s idea on a better way to garage sale, as a way for his girlfriend (now his wife) to trade Pez dispensers online. By 2001, more than $9 billion in merchandise was sold via the auction monster. Now, eBay Inc. is the biggest internet marketplace, reporting a gross profit of $2,656,894 for 2004.

In an interview with eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar in BusinessWeek Magazine, Senior Correspondent Robert D. Hoff asks a pertinent question:

Hof: "It seems ironic that eBay started out intending to level the playing field for small businesses and individuals, and now eBay is a big corporation. How do you make those jibe these days?" Omidyar: "It sure is ironic. I like to think we're a different kind of big company, because of the way we interact with our community. If we lose that, we've pretty much lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But

es such as eBay, PayPal, Google, and Blockbuster have crushed the little guy beneath the giant wheels of change. What would have been important to the small companies as they used to be is a far cry from the values that these corporations embrace today. Will it always be this way? Change is inevitable, but does it really take stepping all on the individuals that got them there in order to succeed? It’s as if once a certain dollar amount is reached in net revenue, the blinders go on, and the company loses touch with the little guy.

EBay, Inc. began in 1995 with one little guy’s idea on a better way to garage sale, as a way for his girlfriend (now his wife) to trade Pez dispensers online. By 2001, more than $9 billion in merchandise was sold via the auction monster. Now, eBay Inc. is the biggest internet marketplace, reporting a gross profit of $2,656,894 for 2004.

In an interview with eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar in BusinessWeek Magazine, Senior Correspondent Robert D. Hoff asks a pertinent question:

Hof: "It seems ironic that eBay started out intending to level the playing field for small businesses and individuals, and now eBay is a big corporation. How do you make those jibe these days?" Omidyar: "It sure is ironic. I like to think we're a different kind of big company, because of the way we interact with our community. If we lose that, we've pretty much lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But

e, the blinders go on, and the company loses touch with the little guy.

EBay, Inc. began in 1995 with one little guy’s idea on a better way to garage sale, as a way for his girlfriend (now his wife) to trade Pez dispensers online. By 2001, more than $9 billion in merchandise was sold via the auction monster. Now, eBay Inc. is the biggest internet marketplace, reporting a gross profit of $2,656,894 for 2004.

In an interview with eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar in BusinessWeek Magazine, Senior Correspondent Robert D. Hoff asks a pertinent question:

Hof: "It seems ironic that eBay started out intending to level the playing field for small businesses and individuals, and now eBay is a big corporation. How do you make those jibe these days?" Omidyar: "It sure is ironic. I like to think we're a different kind of big company, because of the way we interact with our community. If we lose that, we've pretty much lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But

idyar in BusinessWeek Magazine, Senior Correspondent Robert D. Hoff asks a pertinent question:

Hof: "It seems ironic that eBay started out intending to level the playing field for small businesses and individuals, and now eBay is a big corporation. How do you make those jibe these days?" Omidyar: "It sure is ironic. I like to think we're a different kind of big company, because of the way we interact with our community. If we lose that, we've pretty much lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But

lost everything. If you're starting a revolution and you succeed, then are you still a revolutionary? It's a little bit weird, but I think we still have a long way to go, bringing the level playing field to the rest of the world."

Interestingly, earlier in the interview, Omidyar touts his original ideals of listening to his customers, and shaping the software based on their suggestions, sometimes even the same night he received an email from a customer. But increasingly, as of late, eBay’s customers are reporting a greater dissatisfaction with the way the conglomerate is handling their marketplace. After all, it is eBay sellers that are the actual customers, because they pay all the fees, and therefore are the source of eBay’s revenue. And unless you are a Power Seller, forget about calling eBay. Their number is reserved for only the elite few who can meet their standards of maintaining so many thousands of dollars in sales per month. You’ll be lucky if they respond to your email within a week. So I wonder what makes a level playing field, as Omidyar so aptly puts it. Can eBay truly claim to not have reached it yet? Come on…

Since the company raised its prices to sellers earlier this year, though, there are defections to Overstock, Yahoo, Amazon, and other smaller auction sites. Is eBay in that much financial distress that it has to rob the sellers of their hard earned auction profits only to pay higher fees? By the looks of the profits listed earlier, we can all see they’re not struggling. According to BusinessWeek’s David Kiley:

“Ebay's stock is trading at almost half its 52-week high despite continuing to make money. One wonders if eBay has simply become as complacent as General Motors became in the 1980s, figuring that Toyota and Honda would never amount to much, and that people would prefer a used Buick to a new Hyundai. Ebay is still a market share leader by a big margin. But investors and Wall Street tend to value a stock based on what they think future performance will be. Looks pretty bleak.”

Tiffany & Co., which has filed a lawsuit against the Internet auction giant for facilitating counterfeits, claims that eBay has a responsibility to police its auctions. Gucci, Prada, and other big names are closely watching the suit, as the ramifications will affect them