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eBay has announced that they will be closing their affiliate program on CJ and launching the eBay Partner Network, an in-house eBay affiliate program.
Back in September 2006, eBay announced the launch of their own affiliate linking infrastructure called Project Rover.
At the time, I speculated on my blog whether “a full secession from CJ (was) in the works?”
The eBay Partner Network is officially launching on April 1st, 2008. eBay started up with Commission Junction on March 2, 2001.
“Affiliate partners are central to eBay’s ongoing strategy of improving the user experience and increasing engagement,” said Matt Ackley, vice president of Internet marketing at eBay.
“The new eBay Partner Network will allow us to have a direct relationship with our affiliates, innovate faster and deliver new products and tools in a more timely and efficient manner, providing new revenue opportunities for our affiliates and creating a more streamlined user experience for our buyers and sellers.”
The eBay Affiliate Program has more than 100,000 members globally and is one of the most successful tools for driving buyers to eBay, according to an announcement from eBay.
The move from CJ will impact both eBay and Half.com, and current affiliates will have to move to the eBay Partner Network by May 1st, 2008.
I touched base with Dave Osman, SVP Operations at Commission Junction for comment on the in-house affiliate program plans from eBay.
“As you might expect, we hate to ever lose a client, regardless of their size. CJ has enjoyed a very long and fruitful partnership with eBay, but because of their very unique technological capabilities and considerable staff they felt that they could migrate the management of this program in-house,” stated Osman.
“We’ve worked very closely with them over many months to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible for publishers. Of course, we wish them well on the affiliate programs they’re taking over, we’re looking forward to continuing to support the eBay programs that remain with us, and we’re pleased that eBay is continuing their close relationship with our Mediaplex division,” Osman continued.
eBay’s Tradera AB, ProStores, Inc, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay Stores and StubHub will not be affected and will remain with Commission Junction.
Additionally, eBay affiliates working with other platforms, including Affilinet and Tradedoubler, will not be affected.
More details on the transition process for eBay affiliates at http://affiliates.ebay.com.
15 responses so far ↓
1 Final Tag | Big News: Ebay Leaving CJ, to launch the ebay partner network // Mar 17, 2008 at 8:32 am
[...] See also: AffiliateTip.com - Apparently, this was probably in the works since september 2006. See link on the affiliatetip [...]
2 eBay, CJ, and St. Patrick’s Day | Jangro.com // Mar 17, 2008 at 10:39 am
[...] “First!” with the news, but it was scooped by ValleyWag last night, and my good friends Shawn Collins and Sam Harrelson were hovering over the submit button this morning. Be sure to read their takes on [...]
3 eBay Leaves CJ to Bring Affiliate Program Inhouse - 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs // Mar 17, 2008 at 10:54 am
[...] and others wondered if that move signaled the beginning of the end for the CJ eBay relationship. Shawn gave me a nudge today to let me know that eBay just announced they will indeed be closing their CJ [...]
4 Not John Chow // Mar 17, 2008 at 10:57 am
eBay is like a 500 pound gorilla. Where does a 500 gorilla sit? Any where it wants. I think it was inevitable that eBay would move on and start their own system.
5 Deborah Carney aka Loxly // Mar 17, 2008 at 11:54 am
I predicted this back during the LMI debacle. CJ made a very bold and bad move that affected too many without giving notice to their merchants. They backed off, but it made their merchants that were on the fence consider other options. Fortunately eBay took their time and has finally been able to make the move. Plus, ss others have said, this was probably inevitable due to the size of the program. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
6 Ebay has left Comission Junction | Doug's mouthpiece // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:53 pm
[...] years, but all first loves don’t last forever, shame, and as of today they have officially split up. It has taken them a couple of years to sort out the [...]
7 Linda Buquet // Mar 17, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Wonder how shoppingads.com (originally ShoeMoney’s AuctionAds) will be affected because of the changes above. Their widget was pulling from CJ too and serving TONS of CJ/eBay links to TONS of affiliates - at least in the beginning, not sure how they are doing now.
8 Neubaum Turk // Mar 17, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Wasn’t eBay CJ’s #1 advertiser by far? I’m guessing this news hurts CJ in a big way in terms of revenue.
9 Linda Buquet // Mar 17, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Man Valueclick is having a really bad day!
1st it was the eBay news, then news of the biggest Can Spam settlement in history. 2.9 Million. Way to go Vclick! Your stock is really going to take a hit now.
New ValueClick Spam Case - Record 2.9 Million Settlement
10 unTECHy // Mar 17, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Wonder what this means to all who have invested in Build-A-Niche ebay stores. At $100 a pop, I sure hope thay can convert easy enough.
11 eBay Gets Closer to Its Affiliates : // Mar 18, 2008 at 7:19 am
[...] top affiliates saw the eBay/CJ split coming and were even able to get some direct reaction from Commission [...]
12 Carsten Cumbrowski // Mar 18, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Hey Linda, I don’t think that it will make much of a difference for auctionAds. They are using the eBay web services API and not the CJ one as far as I know. eBay will not change much there, only the URL.
I would be very surprised, if their in-house platform does not have some sort of “SID” tracking functionality.
I would also assume that eBay extends their web services API to provide access to reporting data via automated means. Their API is not beta, like CJs so I think that this might be benefitial for them from a technical point of view.
From an overall business point of view things might look a bit different. It’s hard to tell, because there are many factors and many unknowns (to me) that could play an important role there.
13 Affiliate Thing Podcast - March 26, 2008 : GeekCast.fm // Mar 27, 2008 at 5:28 pm
[...] eBay Leaving Commission Junction [...]
14 Affiliate Thing Podcast - March 26, 2008 | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins // Mar 27, 2008 at 5:46 pm
[...] eBay Leaving Commission Junction [...]
15 eBay Partner Network Accepting Applications | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins // Apr 1, 2008 at 9:02 am
[...] Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.eBay announced a couple weeks back that they were migrating their affiliate program from Commission Junction to an in-house affiliate [...]
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