Remember the dive-bombing plane sound we’d make as little kids? “Neeeerrrrowwww.” That same noise is perhaps the most succinct way of describing what’s happening to traffic-related eBay statistics.
A Compete graph makes pretty clear that eBay received fewer unique visitors in October 2008 than the same month last year. The fall amounts to a 13.2 percent year-over-year change, and the September-to-October transition alone accounts for a decrease of 6.2 percent.
Compete’s Record Of eBay’s Declining Traffic
(Credit: Compete)
Even more data that eBay fans are sure to view as disturbing is provided by a table Nielsen Online put together for Henry Blodget. True, Nielsen only reports a 10 percent year-over-year decrease in eBay’s unique audience. But the numbers go on to indicate a 19 percent drop in time spent per user, and a 33 percent decline in pageviews during the same period.
All of this points to some rather serious problems. They may or may not be company-specific, of course – it looks like we’re almost to the point that the term “recession” will officially be used to describe the entire economy – but eBay’s facing some challenges either way. Don’t be surprised if its scheduled slate of holiday promotions gets either stepped up or extended.
Finally, in case anyone’s wondering, a graph of eBay’s stock follows these other figures and then some, declining 59.7 percent since last November.
