On May 24, eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe participated in a high-profile panel discussion at the e-G8 Forum in Paris, along with other major Internet leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon. The first-of-its-kind event preceded the meeting of the G8, comprised of the heads of state and government of the Group of Eight – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. Topics included Internet freedom and the digital ecosystem.
As a part of the Internet & Economic Growth Panel, Donahoe had the opportunity to talk about the role eBay and the Internet as a whole play in creating economic opportunity for millions of people globally. The panel conversation revolved around the Internet’s impact on the economy and society via economic growth, job creation, and value creation. Watch the entire panel here and get media highlights below.
“The two themes eBay really stands for are economic opportunity creation and a global economy,” Donahoe said. “eBay has 17,000 employees, which by global standards is not that large of a company, but every month over 100 million people use eBay or PayPal’s product and perhaps most importantly 25 million people actively sell something on eBay each month.”
- Sarkozy’s Opens ‘Historic’ Forum on Future of Internet in Runup to G8 (The Guardian U.K.) – A unique chance for the main players in the development of information and communication technologies to come together with leaders of state.
- Sarkozy Pushes for Global Web Rules (The Wall Street Journal) – Clashing views over the role of governance online, a small delegation is due to present resolutions from the Forum to the Group of Eight leading nations meeting in Deauville.
- Sarkozy Riles Internet CEOs at e-G8 (Forbes Blog) – Perhaps the most interesting moment of the first panel – which also included John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, and Sunil Mittal of Indian operator Bharti Airtel – was unrelated to the Internet freedom argument.
- ‘e-G8’ Summit Divided over Policing Internet (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Sarkozy warned of “democratic chaos,” recognizing that the internet played a role in recent uprisings and insisting online activity must be governed by rules.
- Internet Rules at Center of ‘e-G8’ Forum in Paris (NPR) – The discussion includes issues such as protecting children from “evil stuff” online, preventing illegal downloads of copyrighted material and shielding Facebook users from unsolicited invitations.
- Google’s Eric Schmidt Clashes with Nicolas Sarkozy at eG8 (The Telegraph) – Schmidt believes governments should not try to regulate because technology will resolve the problems themselves; Sarkozy’s comments stood in stark contrast.
- Sarkozy Opens Divided e-G8 Forum (The Wall Street Journal Blog) – Dividing views are emerging at the e-G8 forum as Internet players argue that regulation should be kept to a minimum while the French government calls for responsible governance.