Ebay revenue up 25%

Online shopping pioneer Ebay has posted a 25% increase in revenue, with it payment

business PayPal seeing a growth of over 100m active users, where revenues surpassed $1bn.

Margins in the core business were down mainly due to the completion of its $2.4bn acquisition of GSI Commerce. John Donahoe, chief executive, said Ebay was uniquely positioned to compete in an evolving retail ecosystem where online and offline commerce are increasingly overlapping, with mobile sales and payments playing a big role in that transition. “Simply put, we’re playing offense,” he said. “While others talk about the promise of mobile payments, PayPal is delivering.”

Without offering details, Mr Donahoe promised a mobile payment pilot with a major retailer before the end of the year, with multiple large merchants to join in 2012.

Several large companies, including Visa and Google, have announced plans in recent months for a “mobile wallet”, where consumers will be able to pay for things with credit card data stored in their phones.

Ebay shares fell 2 per cent in after hours trading.