NEWS
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eBay snaps up AI-powered Expertmaker to clean up its messy listings
eBay has a problem: Its website is just too damn messy, and its search capabilities aren’t powerful enough. As a result, users are forced to wade through pages and pages of listings to find the exact item they’re looking for. That could push a lot of customers to rivals like Amazon.com, Inc., which is why eBay has finally done something about it.
On Thursday, eBay announced that it’s agreed to acquire Swedish software make Expertmaker, which specializes in AI and machine learning systems that can help to analyze and organize massive sets of data. It’s just what the doctor ordered for eBay, which hosts an average of 900 million listings at any one time.
Expertmaker has actually been working with eBay since 2010, most recently helping out with a “structured data” project aimed at making eBay’s site less cluttered than it currently is. Expertmaker’s software helps eBay to automatically add more product info (like colors, product numbers and so on) to its less-than-detailed listings, in order to help users find just what they’re looking for.
Once the deal is done, Expertmaker’s staff will become a part of eBay’s structured data team, while the company’s founder and CEO Lars Hard will become director of data science at eBay. The deal is set to close at the end of this quarter, but the terms were not disclosed.
eBay has made a number of acquisitions since spinning off PayPal last year. Back in March it snapped up Cargigi to bolster its eBay Motors business, while it acquired Twice late last year to improve its eBay Valet service.
eBay is struggling to turnaround a business that has seen revenues slowly but steadily fall over the last year in face of stiff competition from Amazon.com and others. However, that turnaround seems to have clicked into gear, with eBay posting solid financial results in the last week, thanks in part to a great showing from StubHub, its marketplace for concert and sports tickets.
Just last week eBay added a new page called eBay Wine specifically for international wine listings, as part of its effort at cleaning its main website up.
Image credit: kpgolfpro via pixabay
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