Ebay’s profits up by 50 percent

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :19/07/2007 09:08:13

Revenue from online auctions sent Ebay's profits rising, despite a shrinking number of listings.

The US internet auction firm said second-quarter profits to end of June were up 50 percent to £183 million, from £123 million in the same period last year.

Its auction business was the biggest earnings driver, but PayPal also did well despite Google entering the market with its own online payments service.

Its latest earnings results showed its electronic payments system Paypal continued with a strong performance with revenue up 34 percent as more international customers used the service.

Ebay's web communication portal Skype, which allows customers to make cheap long-distance phone calls through their computers, doubled its revenue to £44 million for the quarter.

Ebay's core auction and other e-commerce sites such as Shopping.com grew 26 percent to £625 million.

The company is said to have purchased about 10 million shares of common stock worth about £169 million as part of an aggressive buyback scheme of up to £1 billion shares over two years.

July 19 2007