What’s the Matter with eBay?

EBay was once a bright light of the internet economy—a quirky, homespun website grown into a billion-dollar enterprise. Forbes asks if the online auction site has forgotten where it came from. Traffic to the site has declined 11 percent over the past two years and its stock is trading at a five-year low. The company's failure is one of imagination. "EBay is cluttered with business-consultant types who are out of touch with customers, lacking in technological vision and prone to sheeplike thinking." Moreover, its executives "worship data above all." Says one former strategist: "EBay is run by smart people who don't use eBay and spend hours debating the data about how other people use eBay. That is the problem."