eBay Reports 'Solid First Quarter'

eBay’s revenue for the quarter ended 31^st March 2019 was $2.6 bn, up 2% on an as-reported basis and 4% on a foreign exchange (FX) neutral basis, primarily driven by gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $22.6 bn, down 4% on an as-reported basis and down 1% on a FX-Neutral basis.

"We delivered a solid first quarter with revenue and EPS," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay Inc. "Our initiatives to create a next generation payment and advertising experience are on track, we saw healthy buyer growth and disciplined cost control, and we continue to simplify the buying process while remaining focused on seller's success."

Based on these results and increased confidence in the year, eBay raised 2019 revenue and EPS guidance.

In the first quarter, eBay grew active buyers by 4% across its platforms, for a total of 180 mn global active buyers. Underlying total eBay performance, the Marketplace platforms delivered $2.2 bn of revenue and $21.6 bn of GMV. Marketplace revenue growth was 3% on an as-reported basis and 4% on a FX-Neutral basis, and GMV was down 4% on an as-reported basis and down 1% on a FX-Neutral basis. 

The company made measurable progress against protecting its unique advantage as a true marketplace in service of - not in competition with - sellers of all sizes, improving how people buy and sell on the platform.

eBay continued its multi-year path toward managed payments, intermediating $220 mn in GMV in the first quarter - a 61% quarter-over-quarter increase - bringing the total GMV enabled since launch to $363 mn and saving sellers $2.7 mn in payment-related costs. Today, the company announced Germany will be its second market for managed payments, subject to regulatory approval. In addition, eBay recently announced the addition of Google Pay as a payment option and the completed integration of PayPal on the new platform, which has been live for a couple weeks with a small set of customers and will continue scaling.

In advertising, eBay grew promoted listings placements and eligibility. In the first quarter, there were more than 800 thousand active sellers who took advantage of the program, promoting over 200 mn listings. This drove over $65mn of revenue in the quarter, up nearly 110% year-over-year. Sellers in the US are seeing an average boost in visibility of 36% when using the first-party advertising offering.

eBay also unveiled several new initiatives for buyers and sellers. The company made registration quick and simple with an expedited process on both mobile and desktop. It launched a search feature that couples advancements in computer vision with relevant filtering to allow shoppers to explore and discover products using pictures and words.

To make it easier to manage listings, provide value to buyers, and help improve conversion, eBay delivered a series of enhancements to the Seller Hub and introduced a new 'Offer to Buyers' feature that enables sellers to proactively make offers to interested buyers.

During the quarter, eBay completed its acquisition of Motors.co.uk, a leading UK-based classifieds site that makes the car buying and selling process intuitive and simple. The Motors.co.uk team has joined Gumtree UK, an eBay Classifieds business, and, together with eBay Motors UK, will offer more than 620 thousand car listings seamlessly across these platforms.

Source : eBay Inc

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