eBay: Using email is a sign of progress

Filed in archive Announcements on August 5, 2007

I just have to vent over something I read and this blog is as good a place as any to do it. The topic: eBay's Online Media Exchange.

For those of you who care less about the business of television advertising, the short story is that eBay believes that their bid mechanism somehow translates effectively into the business of television advertising. I will not bore you with all the reasons why this is naive. Never-the-less, they did finally get it up and tested with at one buy from Intel. The cable network receiving this "six-figure schedule" was Oxygen.

However, while defending the eBay system, Mary Jeanne Cavanagh, VP of Ad Sales at Oxygen, had this little chestnut of a quote. "The negotiations were very normal except most were done via email instead of by phone." And also added, "we want to be innovators in technology. We want to be on the cutting edge of everything out there."

Excuse me? Innovators because you used some email instead of phone calls!