eBay has brought on former Thomson Reuters Exec Devin Wenig as President of its global Marketplaces business unit, which includes eBay’s online marketplace; eBay’s classifieds sites and ticket marketplace StubHub. Wenig will report to eBay President and CEO John Donahoe.
Wenig most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Reuters Markets, where he led the company’s global financial services and media businesses. Wenig also led the integration of Reuters and Thomson following the merger of the two companies. Wenig joined Reuters in 1993 and held a number of senior management positions during his time at the company.
Donahoe says of Wenig in a release: “We are focused on shaping the future of commerce with retailers and sellers of all sizes across multiple formats, including mobile, local and social commerce. Devin will be a strong leader to drive our vision of enabling retailers of all sizes to grow their businesses and enabling consumers to shop anytime, anywhere for whatever they want.”
In 2010, eBay Marketplaces net revenues were more than $5.7 billion, representing about 62 percent of total eBay net revenue (but PayPal is slowly gaining on this) More than half of eBay’s revenue is generated outside of the US.; and worldwide, more than $60 billion of merchandise volume is transacted annually on eBay, with the majority sold at fixed price. eBay has nearly 100 million active users.
There’s no doubt that eBay is evolving its model into new platforms and technologies. But it’s interesting to see that the company is looking to breathe new life into its marketplaces segment with leadership, which hasn’t been performing as well as eBay’s other companies and properties like payPal. But eBay’s marketplaces segment saw a resurgence in revenue in Q2, so perhaps there is still life left in eBay’s auction business.