I am not sure of any other revenue streams that they would have, because I imagine that they pay money to advertise, not receive money from it. It is really nice for them when we sellers sell an item for a big chunk of money because they get a bigger commission out of the deal. It has been a little while since I have sold on there, but the commission used to be 3%. I am actually thinking of opening my store again and selling some of my crafts. Perhaps going public will give them more consumers, and hopefull more sales for me.
I love Etsy and I buy a lot from them. They are reliable and the prices are very reasonable. I'm not sure how well the stocks would do, but I would definitely buy some!
I've known about Etsy for a few years but it is not (in my opinion) a prominent platform like eBay or Amazon. This wouldn't be an investment I would get on right away. I say watch how the stocks perform the first few weeks. Afterwards, you should have a semi-decent idea of how your investment will increase or decrease with an Etsy stock.
I'd keep a watchful eye for a couple of weeks then dicide from there. In theory, they should do well - they provide a viable alternative to eBay for crafters. They have 1.4 million active sellers on board and 19.8 million active buyers so there's certainly some potential there. The only problem is the fact that they do seem to be offering increasing amounts of mass produced rubbish - simply because it has the "vintage" theme which seems to be so popular right now. Hopefully, the site owners will be able to keep this in check and stay close to the original ethos of the business.
I can't comment on their profitability because I haven't seen their financials but I'll be watching out. The idea behind Etsy is a niche online marketplace for a young demographic. If that young demographic will be the new market going forward, Etsy will be solid in the years to come. As of the moment, I like how Etsy is closely associating itself with the more popular sites among the young populace (i.e. Buzzfeed, Facebook, etc.). Their products tend to be viral also.
Their shareprice has been diving ever since the IPO. Once again: probably an overpriced IPO that people jumped on because of.. well I have no idea really. At this point of a bull market I really think most IPOs are outragely overpriced... looks like ETSY fit well into this category.
Like many young tech/e-commerce IPOs, it will be reporting losses for quite a while so the metrics that move the stock will be top line and user growth. I proposed a mini-thesis on Etsy on a few other forums, it's long but let me know what you think if you make it through. BTW, my understanding of its allowing mass-market items were quasi-hand made or craft items. Etsy could turn into a $20b company in 3 years if it adds a fourth silo of items that can be sold on the site: "used." But it would have to do it fast. With eBay in the midst of its Paypal spinoff, they won't know what hit them and many of its sellers of used items will pile into Etsy as they've basically been shown the door under Donahoe's watch. Etsy would clearly need to define what constitutes "used" and clarify what can be listed as vintage vs. used. Recently, eBay Marketplaces once again changed their seller performance settings that have created massive headaches and frustrations, particularly for smaller sellers of used items. Small sellers of used items must adhere to same standards that a large super-seller of new items must adhere to (think of the potential item as described issues for used vs new.) It's 2011 all over again for eBay sellers. Sellers are again itching to skedaddle and they'll bring their customers with them. Donahoe turned eBay into a warehouse for Chinese accessories. New items are emphasized as much as they are on Amazon. Large sellers are getting even better search rankings with Cassini. The cold hard economics of Bain's efficiency strategies has permeated throughout the organization and has stolen the soul from its marketplace. Etsy should just do it. Its name recognition has likely doubled in the last year with its IPO. If announced post spin-off, eBay Marketplaces would drop 25% in market value. If announced before it will make eBay's spinoff process much more convoluted as the resources to change and adapt to the new market threat will be spread thin. Plus, this move will pretty much neutralize Amazon's recent announcement of entering the homemade category. If that goes anything like Amazon Supply, Etsy will have three years to infinity to thwart that threat.
