During a conference call with investors on Wednesday, eBay executives indicated they see great opportunities in the company's classifieds sites through contextual advertising and said there are synergies between classifieds and the eBay platform.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman said the company's online classifieds portfolio is continuing its upward trajectory. "This is a business we weren't even in two years ago, and now we're in more than 400 cities. While this is still a largely nascent business, we see great opportunities to further expand and monetize classifieds. As an example, we have recently introduced advertising in some markets, and the early results are promising."

eBay CFO Bob Swan said later during the call, "Our classifieds business is rapidly gaining traction in all of our served markets. Globally, we now get over 22 million unique visitors per month, growing at close to triple-digit rates, and we're beginning to monetize some of our classified sites via contextual advertising."

In response to an analyst question about contextual advertising on eBay's classifieds sites, Whitman said, "Marketplaats is probably the best demonstrated practice of our classified sites. That is largely monetized through advertising. I think we actually do that with Google in the Netherlands, and that has actually worked quite well for Marketplaats. We are rolling out similar programs to our other classified sites."

Whitman also said during the conference call, "Inspired by our success in driving synergies between eBay Motors Germany and Mobile.de in Q3 we also began integrating vehicle classified listings on eBay Motors in the UK, Italy, France and Australia. This provides car buyers greater choice from one online force, while helping car sellers increase their reach and sales."

As noted previously by AuctionBytes, eBay has expanded its "Ad Format" on eBay.com (http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2006/10/1160773163.html).

Whitman also responded to a question about eBay's relationship with Craigslist, stating that eBay has a good working relationship with the classified site. "We have learned a lot from Craigslist. I think they have learned a lot from us, particularly in the trust and safety arena. But no new news there in terms of a closer working relationship. It is just we have a great relationship with them, but that is really all there is to report."

eBay Inc.'s online classifieds websites are available in 400 cities and include Kijiji, Gumtree.com, LoQUo.com, Intoko, Netherlands-based Marktplaats.nl, and German automotive classifieds site Mobile.de. In addition, eBay owns a minority investment in Craigslist.

A transcript of eBay's conference call is available on the SeekingAlpha.com website.

http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/18735