Simon Smith joined eBay October 2000 as Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand. Although he was not successful in developing a meaningful eBay presence in New Zealand, eBay Australia grew during the early part of his eight year employment.
eBay announced his departure December 16th.
We have learned to read eBay announcements very carefully. They seldom mean what a cursory reading would imply so let us take a closer look at this one. First the title “eBay Australia & New Zealand Pty Ltd Management Changes”, note that nowhere in the announcement does it say Simon resigned, or is moving on to explore other opportunities, just the bald ‘Management Changes’. Then there is that odd turn of phrase “At the same time”
eBay Vice President Simon Smith, who’s headed up the Australian operations for eight years, today announced that he’s leaving the organisation. At the same time, eBay Director, Deborah Sharkey has been named as Managing Director of eBay Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd.
Was he pushed?
In the Corporate world you are only as good as your last failure. Simon was at the helm for the embarrassing and undoubtedly expensive PayPal Only in Australia policy debacle earlier this year. It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that eBay International was surprised but not delighted by its humiliation at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission hearings.
Simon publicly claimed credit for the PayPal Only concept at the eBay Forum meetings in Melbourne and Brisbane this year, confirming a statement made by Andrew Pipolo of PayPal in an interview for an industry news article back in August 2007.
Many Australian users doubt Simon thought up the PayPal Only ploy all by himself. They believe it came down from the upper regions of eBay Corporate in San Jose, that he was tasked with implementing it and failed.
Then there is Simon’s unfortunate predilection for stuffing both feet in his mouth at the same time. Comparing eBay sellers to heroin addicts in a public meeting staged to sweet talk those same sellers into acceptance of an unpopular policy neither wins hearts and minds nor makes good press, and it went worldwide. Simply put; Simons tactlessness galvanized them into making a record breaking number of written submissions to the ACCC in opposition to the planned policy.
Let us not forget the EBS fiasco in which the whole of Australia learned that PayPal Protection, despite the advertising campaign was largely illusory. This incident may well result in the compulsory regulation of PayPal after their appearance at Reserve Bank of Australia meeting scheduled for February 2009.
In Australia as in the USA there has been much anger and hostility towards both eBay and PayPal from sellers this last year. Oztion and other platforms saw record enrollment. Doubtless some sellers returned to eBay out of necessity but I would bet figures are down overall. Has Simon become more of a liability than an asset?
Finally
There is Simon’s parting statement
“I’ve enjoyed eight exciting years at eBay and, given that recent changes to the organisation are now complete, it seems an appropriate time for me to move on.”
which certainly prompts the question
“What changes to the organisation are now complete?”
What do you think?
Y’all come back!
Actually, he compared sellers to heroin dealers, not addicts. He basically said that failing to offer PayPal was equivalent to selling heroin on the streets.
Simon first “endeared” himself to sellers back in 2006, when they implemented a fee increase that was more severe than any of the other eBay sites, and then Simon absolutely and completely stonewalled everyone. He refused to answer any questions, no matter how valid or politely worded. That was when Australian sellers knew for sure that Simon didn’t know and didn’t care about them or their businesses…
So, I think I speak for a lot of Aussie sellers (though I haven’t sold on eBay in some years now) when I say to Simon, “Don’t let the door hit you in the arse on the way out, mate.”
And a lot of us are holding out for that compulsory regulation of PayPal that we sincerely hope is coming. PayPal is in violation of an awful lot of Australia’s finance and payment regulations, and if they’re actually forced to comply, they’ll almost certainly have to shut up shop in Australia (though Australians will be able to still use the U.S. version, which is what we do now, as they only pretend to be in Australia and we have to go through the U.S. banking system for every payment). If that happens, it’s actually forseeable that eBay, itself, might end up doing what eBay New Zealand did… which is point the domain to the U.S. site…
Posted by bonni on December 18th, 2008.
Bonni said: “If that happens, it’s actually forseeable that eBay, itself, might end up doing what eBay New Zealand did… which is point the domain to the U.S. site…”
And then…. Ebay becomes effectively PayPal only for most Australian sellers (at least those who continue to sell in US dollars on Ebay). I honestly think that it may suit Ebay to close the Australian site, particularly if they can get Ebay UK to be PayPal only, or as close to it as the American site now is. At that point they would have reason to close the Australian site so they can have “consistant” payment policies across their (connected) English speaking sites. Of course this would be in the name of protection of all Ebay users, and only coincidentally be of benefit to PayPal.
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The classic Simon Smith quote, as quoted by Angus Kidman who attended the Melbourne meeting where it was uttered, was reported as: “We’re not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can’t go out and buy heroin on the streets.”
It could be interpretted either way, but I guess that it is the junkie/addict that buys the heroin on the streets. It has to come close to being one of the most inept moments in business marketing of the year, and in a particularly bad year for business.
Cheers, Kevin
Posted by Kevin_T on December 18th, 2008.
[...] to the topic of farewells, and Henrietta at RedInkDiary has written a damning obituary for the departing/departed Simon Smith, former head of eBay downunder, he of the “sellers are like heroin addicts” global [...]
Posted by Sunday Papers 21 December 2008 - BuildaSkill.com on December 20th, 2008.