eBay

luckythewinner · ‎04-28-2021

Here's what eBay reported this evening:

eBay Inc. Reports Better Than Expected First Quarter 2021 Results

Revenue of $3.0 billion, up 42% (as-reported) up 38% (FX-Neutral)
Gross Merchandise Volume of $27.5 billion, up 29% (as-reported) up 24% (FX-Neutra)
$292 million of share repurchases
$122 million paid in cash dividends
Annual active buyers grew by 7%, for a total of 187 million global active buyers
Annual active sellers grew by 8%, for a total of 20 million global active sellers
MP and checkout flows reduced unpaid items by 80% on fixed price transactions
52% of global on-platform volume processed through managed payments
80% of the payments migration completed in the US

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-inc-reports-better-than-expected-first-quarter-2021-re...

dbfolks166mt · ‎07-31-2021

Not really all that confusing.

But....but.... how can this be?

I specifically saw many posts from sellers who claim to be leaving eBay in droves, so how did active seller % grow?

Sri Lanak

I specifically saw many posts from sellers saying buyers were no longer using eBay, so how could active buyers % increase?

Foreign market growth in the wake of COVID. A lot of foreign countries do not what the diversity in ecommerce sites enjoyed by many US buyers either due to technology or governmental control.

I specifically saw many posts from sellers saying eBay would go out of business soon.

Probably will never go out of business but Wall Street has noted that all ecommerce will be challenged in the wake of the subsiding of the COVID pandemic restrictions, changing tax laws and increasing ecommerce diversity to maintain substantial market share.

dbfolks166mt · ‎07-31-2021

I dumped my eBay stock when they started moving towards MP and they split with PayPal as their financial processor. I used to like the dividends just hated paying the capital gains tax on them. What I find more interesting is the comparison of the eBay stock price to the PayPal stock price after PayPal was out from under the constraints of eBay.

luckythewinner · ‎07-31-2021

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
Not really all that confusing.

But....but.... how can this be?
I specifically saw many posts from sellers who claim to be leaving eBay in droves, so how did active seller % grow?

Sri Lanak

I specifically saw many posts from sellers saying buyers were no longer using eBay, so how could active buyers % increase?

Foreign market growth in the wake of COVID. A lot of foreign countries do not what the diversity in ecommerce sites enjoyed by many US buyers either due to technology or governmental control.

I specifically saw many posts from sellers saying eBay would go out of business soon.

Probably will never go out of business but Wall Street has noted that all ecommerce will be challenged in the wake of the subsiding of the COVID pandemic restrictions, changing tax laws and increasing ecommerce diversity to maintain substantial market share.

The other possibility is that most of the sellers who said they were leaving never actually left 😮

dbfolks166mt · ‎07-31-2021

Company reports are designed to look good to the shareholders and are often ambiguous. Find in the report what eBay actually considers to be an "active" buyer or seller. There are lots of people on this board that have an account simply to post on this board that they may neither sell or buy from. There are a lot of sellers and buyers that have an account that they may have not done any business on/with for months-years.

There are a lot of people that have a drivers license and don't own a vehicle or drive. The number of buyers and sellers is really not all that relevant in the big picture of things it may have little to do with the bottom line. A lot of defense contractor companies have a VERY limited customer base but sell billions/trillions in products and services.

luckythewinner · ‎07-31-2021

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
Find in the report what eBay actually considers to be an "active" buyer or seller. There are lots of people on this board that have an account simply to post on this board that they may neither sell or buy from.

I did. Active buyers are:

"All buyers who successfully closed a transaction on our platforms within the previous 12-month period. "

So your suggestion that posting-only accounts are inflating the numbers would appear to be a red herring.

But even if they were counted, they would have been counted before eBay's recent changes too - so they would not account for the modest increase that some seem to be trying so hard to discredit.

Perhaps the increase in buyers and sellers is simply due to an increase in buyers and sellers. But that seems to conflict with the desired narrative, hence the red herring.