By Joseph Galante - Jan 5, 2011
John Donahoe, president and chief executive officer of EBay Inc. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
EBay Inc., owner of the largest online-commerce marketplace, said that gross sales through mobile phones more than tripled to $2 billion worldwide last year, reaching the upper end of its forecast.
Mobile sales in the U.S. were $850 million, up 175 percent from the previous year, Steve Yankovich, a vice president at EBay, said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company had forecast global mobile sales of $1.5 billion, though in November Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe said sales would reach $2 billion.
EBay is trying to capitalize on a surge in consumers shopping on phones -- a market where BGC Partners LP says the company has an early lead. In June, EBay bought RedLaser, a barcode-scanner application, and last month the company purchased Critical Path Software Inc., doubling the size of its mobile team.
“This is proof we’re not only the leader, but we’re defining mobile commerce,” Yankovich said. “We’re going to see mobile commerce eat into brick-and-mortar sales. It’s all about convenience for the consumer.”
EBay rose 29 cents to $28.76 at 1:23 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares rose 18 percent last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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