eBay is the Greatest Company in the World

OK I said that for effect and to get you to click through from your RSS readers. But seriously, has eBay reached critical mass of Microsoftian proportions?I am not talking about just monopoly share of a large industry. It has had that for some time. I am talking about where the strength of the company spawns other industries around it, that kind of critical mass. Critical mass, although used as a cliche, actually has some grounding in numbers. When we say an industry has hit critical mass, it usually means that the underlying technology or service has reached 20% penetration. Usually good things happen when something reaches critical mass. The oft-used example is that the video rental industry bloomed once VCRs had reached 20% penetration. Brad Feld, a VC whose firm has invested in Auction Drop, has a great post on the company and its recently announced deal with UPS. Auction Drop lets consumers drop off unwanted products at a UPS outlet, after which the outlet ships it back to Auction Drop HQ, where they photograph, list, sell, collect and ship the item in question, all through eBay. He says that the execution of the management is why they have been successful. But I would add in another dimension, timing. Sure enough I checked, and in our modeling of the industry, we have just reached a point where one in five of the total online population in the US buys something from eBay each year – that 20% number working its magic once again. [Niki Scevak]