Coop's Corner

What with a deepening global recession it's been pretty much a lousy 2008 for most folks, but it's closing on a very good note--if you happen to be an elephant, that is.

Come January 1, eBay's worldwide ban on ivory products goes into effect, a move that animal rights advocates hope will help protect elephant populations around the world.

The proliferation in the illegal trade of wildlife species has been aided by the use of the Internet. In a recent report (PDF), the International Fund for Animal Welfare found that about two-thirds of the global online trade in protected wildlife takes place on eBay's platform. The group said that poachers kill more than 2,000 elephants in Africa and Asia annually to meet demand for ivory products.

The sale of elephant ivory has been illegal since 1989 (although there are certain exceptions to the prohibition).

In a statement, Jack Christin, senior regulatory counsel for eBay had this to say:

"Due to the unique nature of eBay's global online marketplace and the complexity surrounding the sale of ivory, we decided to ban the sale of ivory on eBay. We appreciate the support from the IFAW in assisting us and we look forward to continuing to work with them on the implementation of the global ban. Like the IFAW, ultimately we feel this is the best way to protect the endangered and protected species from which a significant portion of ivory products are derived."

One small step for animals, one giant step for animal kind?

Maybe.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is celebrating a decision by eBay to issue a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by January 1, 2009.

Coincidentally or not, eBay issued its report Monday, one day before the IFAW issued its report detailing the illegal trade in endangered species over the Internet. Nichola Sharpe, a spokeswoman for eBay, said the company had just seen a copy of the report and did not have immediate comment. But she added that eBay planned to implement a variety of "filters and different algorithms" in a bid to eradicate ivory trade among its users. She did not get more specific.

Truth be told, the 38-page report, Killing with Keystrokes, makes for depressing reading.

Among the findings:

• eBay is responsible for 63 percent of the trade in endangered species. Elephant ivory dominated the investigation and comprised 73 percent of all products tracked. In one instance, IFAW said it had tracked a shipment of full elephant tusks valued at $20,000 being hawked on eBay

• eBay sites in six countries were discovered selling endangered wildlife products, including ivory and hides from elephants, turtle shells, taxidermy items, and leopard, cheetah, ocelot, lizard, and crocodiles skins.

• Two-thirds of all endangered species products listed on eBay originated in the United States

Barbara Cartwright, the IFAW's Canada campaigns manager, said that "with this one decision, that should get wiped out." There is particular sensitivity to ivory as it's connected to the annual slaughter of roughly 20,000 elephants in Asia and Africa.

But Cartwright and other IFAW executives were careful to qualify their optimism. She said that the campaign against the illegal trade in protected species extends far beyond eBay and its affiliates.

"The Internet is so vast that it's making it hard to nail down for lawmakers and for law enforcement," she said. "We were only able to look at publicly available sites. There's probably an entire underground trade that we don't have skills to uncover."

Live animals accounted for about 21 percent of the creatures trafficked over the Internet. The remainder consists of wildlife products made from the remains of protected species. The IFAW investigation said the list included elephants, birds, primates, and big cats.

In terms of national origin, nearly 40 percent of the sellers tracked by IFAW came from the United States. Looked at another way, the U.S. accounts for 10 times the traffic of the next two countries on the list, the United Kingdom and China, according to Jeff Flocken, who runs the organization's Washington, D.C., office.

"U.S. citizens are driving the trade beyond U.S. borders," he said, adding that what's been uncovered to date on publicly available Web sites "may represent just the tip of the iceberg of what's going on in the Internet."

Here's an interview I conducted after today's press conference with Flocken.

Earlier today, one of my blogging brethren Don Reisinger laid into eBay, dismissing it as "no more than an outdated, bloated company that lost its way years ago."

Once a Internet company gets a rap for being "uncool" you know the corporate marketing team has taken its eye off the ball. But in this Web 2.0-to-Web 2.5 world of ours, the temptation is to shoot first--and then shoot again and again without asking whether you're even aiming at the right target.

So it is that the piece finishes with the suggestive admonishment that:

"eBay is poised to enter the junk heap of tech if it doesn't do something quickly. It may seem like a company that has longevity written all over it, but trust me, the chances of eBay staying around for too long while maintaining this strategy are slim. Sadly, it'll only take one competitor."

That's harsh but I'm not convinced it's a fair appreciation of what's happening on the ground. No denying eBay has had its issues and the company's also got to prove it didn't waste a ton of dough when it bought Skype. But give management some credit for understanding the risks and challenges it faces.

Meg Whitman's done most of the heavy lifting since she became CEO in 1998. Soon the reigns get handed to John Donahoe, who arrived at eBay three years ago after spending 20 years at Bain & Co., where he finished up as the company's CEO. Hardly a lightweight.

Skeptics have every right to reserve judgment about Donahoe. But I like what I've seen so far. He's presided over changes that reduce the cost to list items for sale and now sellers get to keep more than they previously retained after sales close.

And since the fee changes went into effect, U.S. listings are up between 10 percent and 15 percent. What's more, Best Match, which eBay launched in early March, is also showing improving conversion rates, probably due to the new relevancy-based search algorithm which recently got rolled out.

I suppose you could make the argument that eBay benefits from a dearth of serious competition. Yahoo Auctions never got traction and was shut down last spring. At this point, the only potentially serious competitor would be Amazon--but so far it remains a work in progress. If you're eBay, that's a pretty enviable position to be in while the company works out the kinks. But let's not confuse that with crisis.

Other tech companies have faced far bigger obstacles. The top three on my all-time list feature:

•  At IBM, John Akers didn't have a clue how to deal with the challenge posed by PC clone makers. His idea? Break the company into Baby Bells. Lou Gerstner put a stop to that once he got the keys to the executive office.

•  Hewlett-Packard found itself in absolute chaos after the Compaq acquisition. Mark Hurd's firm hand cleared up the mess and put an end to the internal corporate strife soon after replacing Carly Fiorina.

•  Apple was seemingly on a death spiral under Gil Amelio in the mid-1990s. The product strategy wasn't working and customers were bailing. Then Steve Jobs engineered The Return and the rest was history.

Those were real crises. With eBay, what we're talking about is a nip and tuck job. So let's keep some perspective.