eBay Posts Record Revenue Numbers, Helped by PayPal and Mobile

eBay has posted strong financial results for the third quarter of 2011, helped, once again, by PayPal. The company posted a 32 percent revenue growth, on a year-over-year basis, helping it achieve a record quarter.

"Revenue for the third quarter ended September 30, 2011, increased 32% to $3.0 billion [2.17€ billion] compared to the same period of 2010," eBay announced.

"The company reported third quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $490.5 million, [355.7€ million] or $0.37 [0.27€] per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $628.2 million, [455.6€ million] or $0.48 [0.35€] per diluted share," it said.

PayPal generated more than a third of the revenue, $1.1 billion, 797€ million, up from the previous quarter, the first in which PayPal broke through the $1 billion, 725€ million milestone.   

PayPal revenue is up by 32 percent year over year. The payments processor also reported 103 million active users, 14 percent more than in the same period last year.

The Marketplaces unit, the eBay auctions site, brought in $1.65 billion, 1.19€ billion in net revenue, a 17 percent rise from the previous year.

"Mobile commerce continues to accelerate as consumers change the way they shop and pay," eBay CEO John Donahoe, said.

"We expect eBay mobile commerce to generate almost $5 billion [4.35€ billion] in merchandise volume this year and PayPal mobile to exceed $3.5 billion [2.53€ billion] in payment volume," he said.

eBay also boasted that its mobile apps had been downloaded 50 million times. The company is very confident about mobile growth. It predicts that the gross merchandise volume processed via mobile devices will double in 2011, compared to 2010.

It expects this holiday season to be especially mobile as more people than ever have smartphones and are accustomed to searching and paying for things on their phones.