eBay Depop Acquisition Closing Delayed
Interesting info from Etsy's earnings this morning - the expected closing of sale of Depop to eBay has been delayed from original estimate of Q2 to end of Q3 2026. The deal has cleared regulatory hurdles in US and Germany but is still under review in UK and Australia.
Interestingly, second hand fashion marketplace Tise, which eBay acquired last year, has recently very quietly expanded into the Australian market and plans to expand further into Europe and the UK this year as well - which could give regulators pause.
I do still believe the deal will ultimately go through but it will be interesting to see if they have to make any adjustments to how they operate in those countries to appease regulators.
4 comments
valueaddedresource
OP4 months agoFrom eBay earning's presentation: basically this means eBay now does not expect Depop will start to add profit until 2028. 👀
valueaddedresource
OP4 months ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques definitely agree about the unstable moat and increasing competition from Vinted.
Between this and the tech issues, eBay's earnings call today should be fun. 🍿😂
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·4 months ago@valueaddedresource I'm hoping the analysts look closely at the moat issue. There is an interesting video from a YouTuber about Amazon and how their moat has been shrinking. Of course, Amazon has a lot of other revenue streams beyond just selling goods, and as he notes, it's not like Amazon is going away anytime soon. But he makes some interesting points....one in particular could be applied to ebay...that any platform that is relying more and more on ad revenue from its seller base is a site that is not as strong as it should be....
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·4 months ago@valueaddedresource
That's certainly not good news for ebay. Along with Livestreaming and generating ad revenue, ebay has really been pushing "pre-loved fashion" , and depop is a big part of that strategy. Vinted has been growing pretty fast in that space, along with other sites. And I've been seeing what looks like a growing trend ---some of the really better vintage is basically being sold in online "boutiques" unattached to any platform, but with sellers who know how to market and curate. And more and more of it is being bought and sold in brick and mortar. So, while I agree with ebay that shopping secondhand clothing has become more mainstream, I'm not sure ebay has a really great moat in this category.