Amazon advertising revenue versus EBay’s
Summary: theteamsetguy and eburtonlab discussed the substantial difference in advertising revenue between Amazon and eBay, with Amazon earning significantly more. eburtonlab pointed out that proportionally eBay might earn more per dollar considering their smaller market cap. They debated the sources of Amazon's revenue, noting its reliance on third-party sellers. eoma689485 emphasized the risks for eBay in expanding advertising like Amazon, which could alienate smaller sellers. dhbookds mentioned a legal case against Amazon regarding its advertising practices, while mam98031 noted the challenges in comparing the two platforms due to their differences.
Here is some food for thought. Last year Amazon got over 60 Billion dollars in advertising revenue mostly from small third party sellers promoting their items.
Amazon generated $68.63 billion in total advertising revenue during the 2025 fiscal year, marking a 22% increase compared to 2024. Data tracking is available via Marketplace Pulse.
eBay’s total was approximately 2 Billion. Looks like to me eBay has a lot of catching up do in regards to promoted listings.
mam98031
·2 weeks agoI suppose, but you aren't comparing apples to apples. While I know many like to compare the two sites, there are actually more differences than things that are alike. I know for many that doesn't matter, but it does make comparing the sites apples to oranges.
dhbookds
·2 weeks agoAmazon also has a Fed suit against them on their advertising practices.......
eoma689485
·2 weeks ago"Looks like to me eBay has a lot of catching up do in regards to promoted listings."
Amazon charges for clicks upfront, they extract ad revenue from sellers even on items that never sell. eBay's primary model is much safer for small sellers' margins, but it generates far less cash for the platform.
The main problem - If eBay pushes the paid-advertising requirements too close to Amazon's levels, they risk driving away the unique, small-scale sellers that make up the backbone of their marketplace.
eburtonlab
·2 weeks agoAccording to Google, Amazon's market cap and revenue are both around sixty times eBay's, so it seems that eBay is getting about twice the advertising income per dollar compared to Amazon.
theteamsetguy
OP2 weeks ago · Edited@eburtonlab ,
I would have to agree to disagree. A big percentage of Amazon’s revenue comes from sales of their own inventory or Amazon Cloud Services. The 68 Billion is mostly from their third party sellers. Only slightly more than 20% of Amazon’s sales are from third party sellers.
eburtonlab
·2 weeks agoAccording to Google: "Third-party merchants [on Amazon] account for over 60% of total physical product units sold on the platform and generated about $575 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)." Versus "around $79.6 billion in full-year GMV" for eBay.
"Amazon does not publicly break down its exact percentage of advertising revenue coming specifically from third-party (3P) sellers versus first-party (1P) vendors or non-endemic brands."
"While Wall Street analysts and e-commerce experts broadly estimate that a substantial majority—frequently cited as well over half—of Amazon’s sponsored search ad revenue originates from marketplace sellers trying to stand out among heavy competition, an official exact percentage is not disclosed in public earnings reports."
So comparing the two directly is not necessarily a simple matter.
frugalmarketplace
·2 weeks agoI was a 3rd party seller for 10 years ..I was very aware of the advertising ..never did it once…and personally shipped about 10,000 orders a year. There also wasn’t the “pressure “ I see here…very interesting. EBay pushes it so much it is nauseating.