19 June 2008


eBay is The World's Online Marketplace, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. In addition to its original U.S. Web site, eBay has established localized Web sites in thirty other countries.

Millions of collectible, decor, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. In 2005, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide. Anything can be sold as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy. In June 2006, eBay added an eBay Community Wiki and eBay Blogs to its Community Content which also includes the Discussion Boards, Groups, Answer Center, Chat Rooms, and Reviews & Guides.

EBay has a robust mobile offering, including
SMS alerts, a WAP site, and J2ME clients, available in certain markets Best of eBay is a new specialty site for finding the most-unusual items on the eBay site. In 2007, the total value of sold items on eBay's trading platforms was nearly $60 billion. This means that eBay users worldwide trade more than $1,900 worth of goods on the site every second.
eBay offers various online help features, including a library of self-help resources, e-mail contact forms and "Live Help," which lets users chat with customer service representatives via instant messaging. Although this is not available to users on international sites such as eBay.co.uk, members of international eBay Web sites are welcome to utilize eBay.com's Live Help service. eBay does offer some phone support to its customers although this is limited to sellers of the rank "Bronze PowerSeller" and above, the company's term for members who sell at least an average of $1,000 worth of goods per month on the site, as well as to eBay Store owners. PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. It is also a European bank based in Luxembourg. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee. It sometimes also charges a transaction fee for receiving money (a percentage of the amount sent plus an additional fixed amount). The fees charged depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient's account type. On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay PayPal enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. It has 149 million registered users and is accepted by millions of merchants worldwide - on and off eBay. PayPal's Q1 2008 global total payment volume of $14.4 billion accounted for nearly 9 percent of worldwide eCommerce. Acquired by eBay Inc. in October 2005, Skype is the world's fastest-growing Internet communication company that has revolutionized the way people talk online. With more than 309 million registered users as of early 2008. In addition to its presence on eBay, Skype has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers. Other key acquisitions have strengthened eBay Inc.'s portfolio of ecommerce companies, Stubhub, a leading online marketplace for the resale of event tickets; rent.com, the most visited online apartment listing service in the U.S.; StumbleUpon, an online solution that helps people discover and share content on the web; and market-leading online classifieds sites including LoQUo.com, Intoko, and Netherlands-based Marktplaats.nl.

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