Dear eBay - did you finally loose the plot?
As the details about the recent layoffs were rather few and far between (the official version is still that eBay laid off 10% of their worldwide workforce - nothing else) the real meat behind the story is slowly trickling in: It looks like the cuts in Europe basically meant that eBay slashed the local teams in each and every European country to a very bare minimum (often literally only a handful of employees) - and combining marketing and marketplace functions on a pan-European level in Switzerland and the UK respectively.
If you ask me that’s a rather bold move - and one which might backfire heavily: If there is one thing eBay should have learned with all their failed expansion plans (Japan or China anyone?), it’s the simple fact that eBay’s business is a rather local one and that you need the local face towards the seller and buyer community. With these layoffs eBay basically gives up on this idea and acts like you can run eBay like a machine - no interaction needed. I heavily doubt that this will work even in the short run - and that most larger Powersellers (who contribute a significant part of eBay’s revenue) will now finally throw the towel; looking for better managed outlets like Amazon Marketplace or their own webshops in conjunction with search & price comparison engine marketing.
Somehow this makes me rather sad - I still think eBay has a very important role to play in the still growing world of ecommerce. Sad. Really sad.
Update: The German magazine Wirtschaftswoche just posted an article about the changes at eBay Germany and confirmed the information I had. [27/10/2008]