eBay, Scobleizer and contemporary culture

This post has grown out of some comments I left on Scobleizer's blog, where he relays some Guinness Book of Records style facts and figures (highest, longest, deepest, fastest) leaked to him by an Ebay exec sitting next to him on a plane.

As I read the article, I couldn't help but feel that the exec on the plane somehow misses the point about what makes eBay different.

Beyond all the slightly cold (though impressive) statistics, the most interesting thing about eBay is the way it's a prism through which you can view contemporary culture.

More and more, eBay is becoming a vehicle for people to express themselves about their relationships, their views about the world and all their hopes and fears.

All human life is there, as someone cleverer than me once said. It's Speakers Corner, Tyburn Gate, a freakshow and a bazaar all at the same time.

All on nothing more than an online trading system.

At a simple level, the reason for this is straightforward: auctions are guaranteed an audience. Popular auctions can attract rapid, global exposure.

Look at the international press attention gained by people selling their virginity, or a coke can, or an old wedding dress via an eBay auction. These people got to express themselves to a far wider audience than most can ever dream. Compare this to the criticism frequently levelled at weblogs: no-one reads them.

At another level, it expresses something about the increasingly transactional nature of our culture. We live in a world where every idea, opinion and experience can be translated into a financial return.

Celebrity culture provides something of a financial insurance policy against the trials of life, because no matter what happens to you, there will always be a book deal or a personal appearance to soften the blow of the experience. What was once a embarassing story you told only to friends becomes your platform to fame and fortune. Your wife left you? Never mind, you'll get paid to open this supermarket.

And eBay is central to that view of the world. It offers a mechanical formula for celebrity success, in that something will only spread virally around the net if it's adjudged to be worthy (by whatever criteria). Hits attract interest and interest attracts celebrity and celebrity is, unarguably, the greatest prize you can win.

eBay allows people their fifteen minutes in an explicitly transactional manner. In that, it epitomises the age. This seems far more important than statistics about year-on-year revenue growth.