20 Apr 2007
Auction giant eBay has reported a 52 per cent leap in quarterly profits, in part down to strong UK growth.
EBay UK was one of the company's biggest growth areas during the quarter, with a 26 per cent surge in registered users compared with a global average increase of 21 per cent.
Growth in Britain, Italy and France has helped to offset a slowdown in Germany and the US.
Profits were also boosted by strong performances from eBay-owned companies PayPal and Skype, and by faster-than-average growth in the UK.
Skype, bought by eBay in 2005 for £1.3bn, moved into the black for the first time as user numbers more than doubled to 196 million.
EBay's profits also benefited from a 51 per cent rise in payments through PayPal, the online transaction service it bought for £75m in 2002.
PayPal has recently been adopted as a payments system by several other online retailers, including Harrods, DHL and Boots.
EBay made $377m in the first quarter of 2007, reporting global revenue up 27 per cent to $1.77bn.
The number of eBay buyers now outstrips the number of sellers, and worldwide membership totals 233 million.
Latest stories from Web
Related articles
Related jobs
Poll
What is the most important IT priority for your company this year?
Connect with V3.co.uk
This paper focuses on a series of best practices and techniques for development teams looking to improve their software development processes
Why good data management at all levels is essential in the modern business (video, 6mins)
Systems Analyst - Project Lead - Chelmsford, Essex...
Windows Systems Engineer (Windows Log File, Syslog) learn...
Role: MVC PHP Developer Location: London, Central...
Title: Senior Web Developer / Engineer (HTML, JavaScript...
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. IThound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Do you agree?