eBay discontinued its AdCommerce ad program in the U.S. and Canada over the summer, and this week, announced it was discontinuing the program internationally effective January 31, 2011. AdCommerce was a pay-per-click advertising program that allowed eBay sellers to place contextual ads on the site promoting their listings.

eBay spokesperson Johnna Hoff said, "Our goal is to keep the focus in eBay search results on surfacing the items most relevant to a buyer's search from sellers delivering the best value and service."

In May, eBay had disclosed that there were over 5.5 billion views of AdCommerce ads served on eBay weekly.

eBay sellers who used AdCommerce ads to promote their eBay Store or listings are not required to do anything - the AdCommerce placements will no longer be available, and existing ads will automatically expire on January 31, 2011. Final billing will be sent out in early February 2011, and performance reports will be available online through mid-February 2011.