eBay, the US-based ecommerce big, is reportedly planning to bow out of the NFT area. As per reviews, the platform has trimmed its Web3 workforce by 30 p.c this week. While not so much is thought about eBay’s reported determination, some drama appears to have unfolded between eBay and the NFT market KnownOrigin that it acquired in 2022. During the acquisition on the time, eBay was taking a look at establishing itself as a notable participant within the NFT area.
In the previous few weeks, some senior officers from eBay tendered their resignations. Stef Jay, eBay’s enterprise and technique officer and one in all KnownOrigin founders, David Moore – each haven’t been actively related to the corporate for some weeks, as per a report by CoinGape.
After buying KnownOrigin, eBay absorbed the workforce operating the NFT market. The plan was to develop and construct on partnerships that had been already working with KnownOrigin. In the final eighteen months for the reason that acquisition nevertheless, tensions between the eBay workforce and the KnownOrigin workforce reportedly rose. The info was disclosed in a report printed by NFTGators, citing an nameless supply acquainted with the matter.
“Many within the company are unhappy, blaming the lack of leadership and strategy for the layoffs. There are internal criticisms, even at senior levels, questioning the qualifications of the current head of Web3 as well as eBay’s strategy team,” the report quoted the supply as saying.
In what looks like an inner communication, Moore knowledgeable his teammates that he has been impacted by the newest spherical of proposed redundancies within the firm.
“Witnessing that level of layoffs within the team was brutal,” Moore stated in his message – a screenshot of which has been printed as a part of the report by the NFTGators.
As of now, eBay has not addressed the scenario. It stays unclear if these layoffs by eBay are a part of an inner restructuring. Afterall, the general NFT market recorded an all-time low in gross sales in 2023.
The gross sales of NFTs peaked in September 2021 when gross sales of those digital collectibles managed to amass round $881 million (roughly Rs. 7,344 crore). However, as of November 2023, NFT gross sales solely managed to bring-in $10.85 million (roughly Rs. 90 crore).
Members of the KnownOrigin workforce have additionally not addressed the scenario on any public area as of now. eBay is planning to put off a thousand extra workers. This info was circulated to the eBay workforce by CEO Jamie Iannone in January.
“The most significant and toughest of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated nine percent of full-time employees. Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months,” the official be aware had stated on the time.
