eBay announced fourth quarter 2005 financial results and said it would make changes to seller fees next month (see related article).
eBay reported record consolidated Q4-05 net revenues of $1.329 billion, representing a growth rate of 42% year over year. For the full year, eBay generated consolidated net revenues of $4.552 billion, a 39% increase over the $3.271 billion in 2004. eBay businesses include eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, Skype, Kijiji, Rent.com and Shopping.com, and eBay CEO Meg Whitman said in conference call Wednesday afternoon, "I believe we have the best ecommerce portfoloio in the world."
Whitman said holiday traffic was at an all-time high with over one billion page views, with the entertainment, sports and toy categories doing extremely well. She said fixed price listings accounted for 34 percent of gross merchandise volume in the fourth quarter.
In China, eBay will begin requiring safe payments (either eBay's local escrow service or PayPal) beginning tomorrow on eBay Eachnet, and final value fees will be eliminated.
Whitman said eBay is beginning to integrate Skype into eBay and PayPal on some international sites in China, Taiwan, Belgium and the Netherlands, she would not comment on whether eBay would roll out Pay Per Call sponsored advertisements in the eBay keyword search results. When asked whether eBay would consider working with large search engines to integrate PayPal into search capabilities, Whitman said the company is open to partnering with anyone, as long as it helps build the PayPal brand and fits in with PayPal's mission of becoming the online global payment standard.
Some metrics of particular interest to sellers follow. eBay's complete press release can be read on the eBay Investor Relations pages (http://investor.ebay.com/releases.cfm ), and eBay's complete filing can be found on the SEC website (http://www.sec.gov/). In addition, eBay hosted a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year results on Wednesday; an archive of the webcast will be accessible online at http://investor.ebay.com.
eBay listings totaled a record 1.9 billion in the full year 2005, 33% higher than the 1.4 billion listings reported in the full year 2004.
Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), the total value of all successfully closed listings on eBay's trading platforms, was a record $44.3 billion in 2005, representing a 30% year over year increase from the $34.2 billion reported in the full year 2004.
Total Payment Volume (TPV), the dollar volume of payments initiated through the PayPal system, excluding the payment gateway business, was $27.5 billion in 2005, representing a 45% year over year increase from the $18.9 billion reported in the full year 2004.
eBay cumulative confirmed registered users at the end of Q4-05 totaled 180.6 million. eBay 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 a record 71.8 million in Q4-05, a 28% increase over the 56.1 million active users reported in the same period a year ago.
eBay new listings totaled a record 546.4 million in Q4-05, 35% higher than the 404.6 million new listings reported in Q4-04.
eBay's fixed price trading contributed approximately $4.0 billion or 34% of total GMV during Q4-05, primarily from eBay's "Buy It Now" feature.
At the end of Q4-05, eBay hosted approximately 383,000 stores worldwide, with approximately 212,000 stores hosted on the US site.
PayPal had 96.2 million total accounts at the end of Q4-05, a 51% increase from the 63.8 million reported in Q4-04. Total payments accounts represent the cumulative total of all accounts opened, excluding accounts that have been closed or locked and the payment gateway business accounts, and including users who made payments with PayPal but have not registered.
Total Payment Volume (TPV), the dollar volume of payments initiated through the PayPal system, excluding the payment gateway business, was a record $8.1 billion in Q4-05, a 45% increase from the $5.6 billion reported in Q4-04.
