Use of Blockchain Technology in eBay

eBay was started in 1995 as an AuctionWeb for small vendors and committed to bringing sellers and buyers together in a marketplace that is open and honest. Since its incorporation, this commerce company has made tremendous efforts in enhancing online shopping experience through two platforms that include StubHub, marketplace, corporate and Classifieds group. The platforms enhance online experience via open source technologies that allow merchants and developers of the software to establish innovative solutions for commerce (eBay 1). The online marketplace is found in the eBay mobile applications, localized counterparts and at www.ebay.com. StubHub platforms comprise of a Ticketbis, mobile applications and online ticket platform and help in connecting fans and allow them to buy and sell tickets for favorite shows and artists and sporting events. On the other hand, Classifieds encompasses a collection of brands. Network and the digital crowd are being utilized by eBay to improve customer experience (eBay 2). In this paper the three salient solutions for organizational decisions are as follows; a) how blockchain is creating peer-to-peer relations that are trusted for commercial transactions, b) use of cloud computing software in eBay’s data centers, c) applying Web 2.0 and social networks as the marketing tools.

eBay is using the blockchain technology to gain a significant control of customer-to-customer transactions through Syscoin API. The organization seeks to make greater use of decentralized bandwidth, storage and computing. Syscoin is a decentralized marketplace that is based on the Bitcoin protocol for peer-to-peer currency and is used in legal documents, documentation of payroll and medical data (eBay 5). eBay, as an online marketplace place has made several advancements including payments integration, smarter contracts, 24/7 support and third-party services such as bookkeeping, direct customer feedback mechanism and language. Blockchain can bring transparency and decentralization through added visibility as well as increased potentials for microtransactions (McAfee and Brynjolfsson 260). Through the crypto-currency and tokens, online retail for eBay has been revolutionized. Nevertheless, dealing with counterfeit goods and services becomes easier. The protection of intellectual property and improved innovation contributes significantly to the growth of this online company. The blockchain offers a new decentralized and networked business model that increases the potentials payments, user transactions and agreements. eBay’s retail has been revolutionized through the new technologies such as smart contracts that remove intermediaries to achieve a peer-to-peer model and product transparency via verification of businesses and quality of products (eBay 30). Despite the decentralized hosting, eBay is also currently experiencing flexible terms, low prices and fees, easy drop-shipping and the secured environment through Syscoin.

eBay has an OpenStack private cloud platform that has enhanced its customer-facing and business-critical applications and is mainly used for its Marketplaces to aid in the management of high volume dev and enhance the experimentation and testing of the environment where eBay’s app is designed and created (eBay 18). Henceforth, spinning of up of virtual networks is easier making the company to be recognized as a multi-vendor. The cloud infrastructure facilitates computing supports the immense auction site through additional infrastructure which is scalable and reliable (McAfee and Brynjolfsson 321). To meet the demands of eBay brands and PayPal. As a result, the organization has gained efficiency in its operations accompanied by the advantages that accrue from self-service flexibility. Approximately 7,000 server instances can run on OpenStack platform. The company’s management needed virtual environments on top of the existing fabric and thus decided to integrate OpenStack that relies on VMware for virtualization. Additionally, attention has been paid towards an open source strategy to increase the potential for cost saving rather than the previous focus on vendor-provided solutions. eBay has built and stored Big Data on OpenStack as a way to promote massively scalable cloud environments, experience enhanced security and development of better skills among the human resource personnel.

eBay is applying Web 2.0 and social networks as the marketing tools to build better and long-lasting customer relationships and cut costs. This new generation of internet application is applied as a platform for promoting communication and interaction with end-users to get immediate feedback regarding the products and services offered (eBay 53). The company can utilize a wide range of Web 2.0 applications including content aggregators, photo sharing, social networks, forum or bulletin boards and blogs while taking into account different issues such as user control, democratization, empowerment, openness, and participation, networking, conversation and community services (McAfee and Brynjolfsson 332). As a result, eBay generates exposure to online business, reduces overall marketing expenses, increases traffics or subscribers, recognizes better lead generation efforts and sells more products and services.

Through the use of digital crowd and networks, eBay can offer millions of products to different customers across the world in its unique marketplace. The buyer’s needs are met through continuous introduction of new features that lead to satisfaction of ever-changing expectations of the online shoppers. Promotion of the listing placements together with an expansion of eBay catalog is the visibility updates that could enhance software designed networking. Additionally, it is paramount to consider optimization of mobile web experience and foster the traffic and SEO benefits. The two lines of business including cloud and retail services, digital assistant and smart devices increase machine intelligence. A customer-centric and efficient retail experience will necessitate more research and development together with experimentation.

Works Cited

McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 227-402.

eBay. Annual Report 2017, pp. 1-68, https://s22.q4cdn.com/610426115/files/doc_financials/2017_eBay_AnnualReport.pdf Accessed 7 September 2017.