Closing an already PR-disastrous 2008, eBay Australia have announced on New Year’s Eve that they are to close the eBay Education Specialist program for eBay Australia.

The brief announcement posted to the Australian Announcement Board on 31st December, giving no forewarning of the change, includes the statement -

As of 31 December 2008, eBay.com.au »”>eBay.com.au’s agreement with Power University ends. All Education Specialists will be allowed to continue using the approved logo and existing materials until 31 March 2009, however, Power University will no longer be hosting its website for Australian teachers. In the interim, eBay advises teaches to advertise their existing courses either via eBay listings, or on the New to eBay Help discussion board. After 31 March 2009, the use of the Education Specialist logo and materials will no longer be allowed.

It should be remembered that membership of the Education Specialist program carries a hefty annual fee paid by the eBay members wishing to join the program -

In the USA program, this fee is US $169.00

In the UK, they appear to have completely scrapped the program already (searching cannot find any mention of it on the UK site. On the Oz site, the same seems to now apply – all references to the education specialist program appear to have been removed already.  Both sites also seem to have removed the eBay University portals.

On the Singapore site, the SG ES program is still prominently featured on the Community homepage, and offers sign-ups as a specialist for Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.  Each country-link leads to the Singapore ES portal stating the same annual fees at US $169.00 without regard to regional or international differences of income and affordability, let alone the significantly reduced revenue expectations from operating in these countries.  For example, a year’s education fees in a state-owned junior school in Thailand is around THB 6,000, yet many locals struggle to pay even this amount (THB6,000 is roughly US $180.00) despite it being payable in portions at the start of each semester.

The eBay announcement (concerning the eBay Au program) also states -

In early 2009, eBay will make an announcement for a new program to recognise those who wish to teach others how to use eBay in Australia. This new program is taking shape after a series of discussions with existing Education Specialists.

That’s alright then?  Are those in discussion with eBay drawn from the rank and file Education Specialists, or from a similar vested-interests group to those consulted by eBay AU before attempting to make the country into a PayPal-only location?

The announcement is suitably vague, that I am left suspecting either a cost-cutting exercise, or a revenue creation exercise, is in play, and that the revised program will, like moderation of the eBay community forums, be farmed out to a third party over whom eBay will claim they have no control, despite eBay being a simultaneous employer and customer of that third party.

On the topic of LiveWorld forum moderation – a little known fact is that if they (or an eBay “Pink”) ban or suspend a user from the main forums, the Education Specialist program becomes untenable to people who have paid to join it … because they are simultaneously banned from the essential access to the Education Specialist forum.

There’s no doubt that some will consider this another move to cold-shoulder the small and new eBay sellers.  What will be more interesting and informative in that vein, will be if the new program is tiered to offer different training schemes according to size of seller.  That would send a much clearer message in this context – a bit like eBay Labs new API for large and high-volume sellers.

Ed