eBay reported financial results for its quarter and full year ended December 31, 2004. Gross profit for the year was $2.7 billion, and eBay's Board of Directors approved a two-for-one split of all outstanding shares of the company's common stock. For links to articles on Wall Street's reaction, see "AuctionBytes Newsflash: Other Online Auction News, January 20, 2005" at http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i20/s04.

eBay said at the end of the year it had 161,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site; 56.1 million active users; and 63.8 million PayPal accounts.

eBay reported record consolidated Q4-04 net revenues of $935.8 million, up 44% year over year; operating income of $284.7 million, up 40% year over year; and pro forma operating income of $313.9 million, up 44% year over year. For the full year, eBay generated consolidated net revenues of $3.27 billion, a 51% increase over the $2.17 billion reported in 2003. Consolidated net income increased 76% year over year to $778.2 million, or $1.14 per diluted share.

"Our strong Q4 results capped off outstanding success throughout the year, with exceptional growth across every part of the business," said Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay. "We have tremendous momentum going into 2005, and I'm more confident than ever that the decisions and investments we're making today will ensure a bright future for the company and our community of users around the world."

In a television interview, Whitman said eBay plans to invest in China in 2005.

Highlights

Listings - New listings totaled a record 404.6 million in Q4-04, 39% higher than the 291.7 million listings reported in Q4-03. New listings in Q4-04 included 28.0 million new eBay Stores listings, versus 5.1 million new Stores listings in Q4-03. Listings totaled a record 1.4 billion in the full year 2004, 45% higher than the 971 million listings reported in the full year 2003.

Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) - GMV, the total value of all successfully closed listings on eBay's trading platforms, was $9.8 billion in Q4-04, representing a 39% year-over-year increase from the $7.1 billion reported in Q4-03. GMV was a record $34.2 billion in 2004, representing a 44% year-over-year increase from the $23.8 billion reported in the full year 2003.

PayPal's business had 63.8 million total accounts at the end of Q4-04, a 58% increase from the 40.3 million reported in Q4-03. PayPal's TPV, the dollar volume of payments initiated through the PayPal system, was $5.6 billion in Q4-04, a 51% increase from the $3.7 billion reported in Q4-03. TPV was $18.9 billion in 2004, representing a 55% year-over-year increase from the $12.2 billion reported in the full year 2003.

eBay U.S. net transaction revenues totaled $362.7 million in Q4-04, representing 24% year-over-year growth. eBay International net transaction revenues totaled $344.3 million in Q4-04, representing 64% year-over-year growth.

Cumulative confirmed registered users at the end of Q4-04 totaled a record 135.5 million, representing a 43% increase over the 94.9 million users reported at the end of Q4-03. Active users, the number of users on the eBay platform who bid, bought, or listed an item within the previous 12 month period, increased to 56.1 million, a 36% increase over the 41.2 million active users reported in the same period a year ago.

Gross profit in Q4-04 was $759.4 million, or 81% of net revenues, which was down slightly from the 82% level reported in Q4-03. eBay said the decrease in gross margin was primarily due to the relative growth of the lower-margin Payments segment. Gross profit for the year was $2.656 billion.

Based on Q4-04 GMV, eBay has twelve categories that delivered $1 billion or more in worldwide annualized GMV:
eBay Motors at $11.1 billion;
Consumer Electronics at $3.5 billion;
Computers at $3.0 billion;
Clothing & Accessories at $2.9 billion;
Books/Movies/Music at $2.4 billion;
Collectibles at $2.2 billion;
Home & Garden at $2.0 billion;
Toys at $1.8 billion;
Sports at $1.8 billion;
Jewelry & Watches at $1.7 billion;
Cameras & Photo at $1.3 billion;
Business & Industrial at $1.2 billion.

eBay's fixed price trading contributed approximately $3.0 billion or 30.7% of total GMV during Q4-04, primarily from eBay's "Buy It Now" feature.

At the end of Q4-04, eBay hosted approximately 254,000 stores worldwide, with approximately 161,000 stores hosted on the U.S. site.

eBay now expects consolidated net revenues for 2005 to fall in the range of $4.25 billion to $4.35 billion. From a quarterly perspective, eBay expects consolidated net revenues to fall in the range of $1.01 billion to $1.03 billion in Q1-05, $1.025 billion to $1.04 billion in Q2-05, $1.035 billion to $1.06 billion in Q3-05 and $1.18 billion to $1.22 billion in Q4-05.

http://investor.ebay.com/financial.cfm