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Posted by Laurel Kline in Business News
Tuesday, Oct.20.2009, 12:38 PM PT
 Hi everyone,
I'm Kumar Kandaswamy, and I'm pleased to announce that we've named a new leader for the eBay Developers Program. Sri Shivananda, an experienced eBay veteran, was recently named Senior Director of Platform at eBay. In this role, Sri leads the eBay Developers Program as well as the Tech and Application Platforms. I will continue my involvement with the program and will be reporting into Sri, who will set the strategy for the teams.
We were lucky enough to get Sri when Half.com acquired Deja.com in Dec 2000. Since then he has worked in various engineering roles at the company including roles in operations, product development and architecture—the most recent of which was as head of Architecture.
During his time in architecture, he worked on helping create new solutions for various business & technology features while architecting for scalability, availability and reliability at Web scale. In this role, he was responsible for driving the technology strategy of the eBay marketplace. In addition, over the last 9 months, he has been a strong advocate at eBay to create features as re-usable services.
One fun fact about Sri, he's multi-lingual. He understands 5 languages, speaks & reads 4, and writes 2. So feel free to drop him a line to say "bonjour."
I know I speak for the entire program when I say that Sri is a great addition to the team, and we look forward to working with him to make this the best time yet for developers building applications with eBay's API platform.
With that, I'll introduce Sri.
-- Kumar Kandaswamy
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Posted by Sri Shivananda in Business News
Tuesday, Oct.20.2009, 11:34 AM PT
 Hi all,
I'm Sri Shivananda, Senior Director of Platform at eBay, and the new head of the eBay Developers Program. I've been admiring this program from afar and I'm thrilled to be able to join Kumar and the rest of the folks here who have made this program a success. We're up to almost 100,000 members now! I look forward to meeting you all and working with you to ensure your success.
Since I'm new to this role, I'm going to hold off on announcing any new plans until I've had a chance to speak with developers and make sure I'm making the best decisions for the program and your opportunities with the eBay marketplace.
What I can share is that I am 100% behind the vision that Mark Carges provided in the eBay DevCon 2009 Keynote we hosted here at our headquarters in San Jose. That vision is to speed innovation and continue to support the platform to enable more flexible development for internal eBay developers and for API developers like you.
As an example of what we're working on, we recently launched Selling Manager Applications that provided third-party developers direct contact to sellers looking for useful tools to grow their businesses and make them successful.
I'd love to hear your questions and comments, and I invite you to drop me an email to introduce yourself at sri AT ebay DOT com or follow me on Twitter @srishivananda.
Thanks and I look forward to working with all of you!
Sincerely,
Sri Shivananda
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Posted by Laurel Kline in Business News & Trading API
Thursday, Oct.01.2009, 9:00 AM PT
Starting October 1, the eBay Giving Works minimum donation will be reduced from $5 to $1 per successful listing. In addition, the automatic collection date for donations will be extended from the second Monday after a listing ends to the fourth Monday after a listing ends.
The lower minimum donation will make it more affordable than ever for sellers to get the cause marketing benefits of eBay Giving Works. The extra two weeks before automatic donation collection gives sellers more time to receive their funds from PayPal and the buyer, before MissionFish collects the donation. (As always, donation minimums and collections dates do not apply to nonprofits selling on eBay to raise funds.)
If you have questions about these changes — or want to learn how to offer eBay Giving Works to your users — please contact MissionFish, eBay’s nonprofit partner. For information on how to use the API with Giving Works, see the API Docs.
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Posted by Delyn Simons in Business News & Product News
Monday, Sep.28.2009, 5:09 PM PT
We had a great webinar with developers last Thursday outlining the Selling Manager Applications developer opportunity we're offering before the holiday shopping season. If you had to miss it, not to worry! You can still email us at developer-relations AT ebay.com to get the details and get in on our offer before our deadline Next Week.
As a recap, if you submit your Business Readiness Review and your Billing Plan by Friday, October 9th, then successfully complete your Application Review to launch your SM Application by Thursday, November 15th, you’ll get:
four hours of premium DTS Support Requests and LiveHelp (a $300 value)
premier marketing placement as a featured application for the month of December on the eBay Applications Directory (http://applications.ebay.com)
we'll waive our eBay cut of the rev share (20%) through March 2010 –- so you get to keep 100% of your application fees earned through March 31, 2010
We want you to join us, so don’t delay! Email us and get in on our special deal by Friday, October 9th, so that you’re ready to access new customers and make more money in time for the busiest selling and shopping season on eBay.com.
- Delyn
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Posted by Laurel Kline in Trading API, Business News & Product News
Wednesday, Sep.23.2009, 9:52 AM PT
In the coming weeks we'll be introducing Bill Me Later on eBay, as well as on other merchant sites through PayPal, beginning with a launch for a limited number of buyers and sellers in the U.S.
Qualified PayPal customers will be able to use Bill Me Later during eBay checkout. For select sellers, PayPal will automatically add Bill Me Later as a way to pay. Sellers included in the initial rollout will be notified via email by PayPal.
Developers who currently support PayPal will not need to make any code changes to support Bill Me Later. In GetItemTransactions and related calls, items that are paid for using Bill Me Later will use the existing PayPal value in the BuyerPaymentMethodCodeType.
Third-party checkout (3PXO) providers must use Express Checkout for Bill Me Later purchases. Bill Me Later is not supported by CP Cart.
Find out more at https://www.billmelater.com/help/ebay_seller_faq.xhtml.
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Posted by Delyn Simons in Business News
Friday, Sep.18.2009, 12:36 PM PT
Greetings eBay API developers!
We’re introducing a special offer for developers who launch their applications on eBay.com for Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro subscribers in time for the upcoming holiday season. Selling Manager Applications are useful to any growing small business with needs around merchandising, customer service, mobile alerts, returns/ resolutions, bulk editing of listings, accounting, shipping, and more. eBay sellers need these tools even more around high volume times like the holidays.
So here’s the deal:
If you submit your Business Readiness Review and your Billing Plan by Friday, October 9th, then successfully complete your Application Review to launch your SM Application by Thursday, November 15th, you’ll get:
- four hours of premium DTS Support Requests and LiveHelp (a $300 value)
- premier marketing placement as a featured application for the month of December on the eBay Applications Directory (http://applications.ebay.com)
- we'll waive our eBay cut of the rev share (20%) through March 2010 –- so you get to keep 100% of your application fees earned through March 31, 2010
In order to take advantage of these incentives, you’ll want to join us for an informational webinar scheduled on Thursday, September 24 at 9:30am PT that will help you bring your application live to site, so you can take advantage of these incentives. Email us at developer-relations AT ebay.com to get the details.
Don’t delay! Email us to RSVP to the webinar on Thursday, September 24th and get in on our special deal by Friday, October 9th, so that you’re ready to access new customers and make more money in time for the busiest selling and shopping season on eBay.com.
- Delyn
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Posted by Delyn Simons in Business News
Tuesday, Sep.01.2009, 8:29 AM PT
As published on eBay Ink this morning, eBay has announced it will sell Skype to receive approximately $1.9 Billion in Cash, while retaining an approximate 35 percent stake. eBay announced back in April that it planned to separate Skype from the company with anticipation of an IPO in 2010. According to a press release issued by eBay this morning, an investor group led by Silver Lake, that includes Index Ventures,
Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board,
will purchase Skype giving them 65% ownership of the communications. - Delyn
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Posted by Laurel Kline in Critical Notes from Tech Support, Business News & Developer Website
Monday, Aug.10.2009, 3:06 PM PT
This is Kumar Kandaswamy, and I manage the eBay Developers Program. I'd like you to read this important message about account safety.
The safety and security of the eBay Developers Program is a top priority. While we believe that people are basically good, we also must live with the reality that there are fraudsters out there who have made it their illicit "profession" to find ways to exploit others on the Internet.
Occasionally, fraudsters attempt to gain unauthorized access to the eBay Developers Program. eBay has recently identified a means by which someone could gain access to eBay Developers Program account information. This type of access DOES NOT allow the capture of financial or other sensitive information, such as credit card or bank account information or Social Security numbers. Fortunately, we have not detected any unusual activity with any Developer account.
Out of an abundance of caution and to help ensure the security of the eBay Developers Program, we are requiring that all developers take the following steps:
- Take advantage of our new, stricter password standards and change your eBay Developers Program (developer.ebay.com) passwords. It is not necessary to change eBay (www.ebay.com) passwords.
If you believe you or your customers have been the victim of fraudulent activity, contact us immediately at developer-relations@ebay.com.
Sincerely,
Kumar Kandaswamy
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Posted by Laurel Kline in Product News, Business News, Critical Notes from Tech Support, Trading API & Best Practices
Wednesday, Jul.29.2009, 6:04 PM PT
Just a reminder that we rolled out the requirement to specify Return Policy and Handling Time in two phases. The first phase, where they are required for new and relisted items, was enforced in June. The second phase, where they are required for Good Til Canceled (GTC) listings, will be enforced in mid-September.
In mid-September, when GTC listings are renewed, they will be checked for Return Policy and Handling Time. If they are not included, the listing will break.
It is likely that you have some customers that will break if they do not take any action. Please make sure that your application supports Return Policy and Handling Time in the structured data, and that your sellers are specifying it. If Return Policy and Handling Time is mentioned only in the Item Description and not the structured data, it will not count toward enforcement and the listing will break.
Also, if you have a lot of listings to update, make sure that you have left enough time to make the updates by the compliance deadline of mid-September. Your bandwidth constraints may limit you in how many revisions you can do in a day, so you may need to start your revisions as early as mid-August to make sure you have enough time to do all the revisions.
Note: Return Policy and Handling Time are not required in categories like Vehicles or Parts & Accessories.
For more information on how to specify Return Policy and Handling Time, see the API Documentation on Return Policy and Handling Time.
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Posted by Delyn Simons in Business News
Monday, Jul.27.2009, 1:27 PM PT
Developers building applications on the eBay API platform should be aware that eBay today announced a number of changes coming over the next few months, including Top-Rated Seller Status, a new BestMatchItemDetails API, and that Selling Manager Applications will be available to subscribers of Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro later this summer. Laurel Kline has posted a fantastic and detailed API impact write-up for developers. Don't get caught off guard -- know how these product and policy announcements will impact your applications. If you are interested in building your own Selling Manager application, see Selling Manager Applications. - Delyn
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