Ebay ventures into social networking

Ebay has invested $2m in the Meetup social networking site, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meetup offers a platform to accommodate meetings for people with common interests ranging from hiking to political campaigning.

Founded in 2002, the service boasts nearly 2m registered users. Meetup's business model is based on charging event organisers a fee ranging from $12 to $19 per month for listings and services.

Ebay said that both companies have a shared interest in using the internet to connect people and create communities. The company pointed out that there are several Meetups for eBay users.

The auction website's move was part of an investment round last month in which a group of investors acquired a 10 per cent stake in the company for an undisclosed sum.

Ebay typically does not disclose such investments, but in this case it choose to do so because Meetup is partially owned by Ebay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar. The auction site stressed in its filing that these private business relations did not affect the terms of the deal.