A Lot of the conversation on message boards all through the Internet in the last few days has been about the big changes Auctiva just announced. They’ve been a Free service for so long that the idea of Auctiva charging really shocked most of their customers. Perhaps overlooked by many in this storm of conversation is the REASON for the change.
Here is a quote from Auctiva CEO Jeff Schlicht “In order to remain free all these years, our business model included many different sources of revenue,” Schlicht continues. “In addition to shipping insurance and our other pay services, like Sellathon.com, we also derived more than half of our income from eBay’s affiliate program. However, eBay recently made changes to its affiliate program that greatly restricted, and ultimately eliminated, this critical revenue stream. As a result, we will have to begin charging for some of our services.” (http://www.auctiva.com/edu/entry.aspx?id=Auctiva-Enters-New-Era)
I think this explains it pretty well. When one of the underpinnings of your revenue stream is taken away – big changes are inevitable.
Your thoughts?
