Incoming eBay CEO Devin Wenig On The New Business The Company Would 'Love To Do'

Now that PayPal being a separate entity is soon to become a reality, eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) Marketplace business is in the spotlight again.

Incoming eBay CEO Devin Wenig was on CNBC recently to discuss the new business area that eBay is trying to get into.

Old Stuff With New Twist

Wenig was asked to elaborate on the statement that he made on the eBay conference call regarding stuff that is lying in people’s closets and garage being worth $100 billion in the U.S. alone. He replied, “Well, I just think it is an enormous opportunity. Obviously eBay was founded with peer-to-peer selling business and it’s now a small part of the business, but I think that it’s an incredible opportunity.”

“If you think about the sharing economy, you are seeing a lot of the companies here in San Francisco, it’s about utilization. And there’s so many things in the world that aren’t well utilized. They are in garages and closets and most people don’t want to sell them because they don’t know how or it’s a pain in the neck.”

He continued, “I think the opportunity to monetize that and if it’s not monetizable to direct it to charitable purposes could be an incredible re-look at that business with a new innovative twist. So, it’s one of the things that we’d love to do."

Simplification

On whether eBay will simplify the features on its site for people who want to sell stuff that is lying in their closets and garage, Wenig said, “Well for those that want to sell, I’ll encourage them to take another look. I think we have made an incredible amount of progress just simplifying eBay.”

“But there are going to be those who don’t want to go through the process and for those we may need a higher level of intermediation. I suspect we may be able to charge more for those that wants us to do more,” Wenig said.