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发帖数: 16594 | 1 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- EBay Inc. on Wednesday said that its first-quarter
profit rose 20 percent on reinvigorated growth at its namesake e-commerce
website and further swift growth at its PayPal payment service.
Revenue from the company's marketplace business, which is its largest and
includes eBay.com, climbed 12 percent to $1.55 billion -- well ahead of the
single-digit growth eBay reported in the second half of 2010.
The company has been working to improve the buying and selling experience on
eBay.com by cutting upfront listing fees it charges sellers, improving its
search engine and revamping its home page.
The company said gross merchandise volume, which measures the value of all
goods sold on eBay, excluding vehicles, rose 8 percent to $14.5 billion.
Though eBay's roots are in the online auction business, more than half of
the transactions on the site these days are fixed-price sales.
In an interview, eBay CEO John Donahoe said the growth shows consumers like
the changes the company has made.
For the company as a whole, net income in the January to March period was $
475.9 million, or 36 cents per share. That compared with $397.7 million, or
30 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2010.
Excluding special items, eBay earned 47 cents per share -- a penny more than
what analysts polled by FactSet expected.
Revenue rose 16 percent to $2.5 billion, essentially in line with analyst
expectations.
Revenue from PayPal, eBay's online payment business, jumped 23 percent to $
992.3 million. This business, which includes PayPal and short-term credit
service Bill Me Later, has grown swiftly as merchants and consumers use it
both on and off eBay. In the next few years, eBay expects the unit's revenue
to surpass that of the marketplace unit.
PayPal's total payment volume rose 28 percent to $27.4 billion, and by the
end of the quarter, the number of active users had risen 16 percent year
over year to 97.7 million.
The mobile market for both PayPal and marketplaces is growing, too, as
consumers are using eBay and PayPal mobile apps on smartphones and tablet
computers. Donahoe reiterated a prediction he made in January, saying he
expects $4 billion worth of goods to be sold through the eBay.com mobile
apps in 2011, which would be double what eBay saw last year.
Consumers "like having, in essence, a store in their pocket," he said.
He expects PayPal's mobile apps, meanwhile, to process $2 billion worth of
payments -- more than double the $750 million they handled in 2010.
San Jose-based eBay also predicted that its second-quarter revenue could
beat Wall Street views: It's looking for $2.55 billion to $2.65 billion,
while analysts have been expecting $2.52 billion.
EBay predicted a profit of 36 or 37 cents per share, or 45 or 46 cents
excluding items. Analysts were hoping for 46 cents per share, excluding
items.
EBay shares rose 7 cents to $34.10 in after-hours trading. The stock had
finished regular trading up 95 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $34.03. |
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