The results, which are considerably ahead of Wall Street predictions, are in part due to eBay’s acquisition of PayPal, the online payment service, which accounts for around 40 per cent of the uplift, as well as pure business growth.
The total value of items sold was a record $5.32bn, representing a 71 per cent increase from the $3.11bn reported in the same period of 2002.
Collectables, including antiques, represent $1.2bn of this figure.
Following the announcement, eBay have revised their forecasts for the rest of the year. They now believe turnover will rise by 70 per cent, $150m more than predicted – breaking through the $2bn barrier – while profits will go up by 49 per cent.
From a quarterly perspective, eBay estimate that Q2-03 revenues could be $500m, Q3-03 $510m and Q4-03 $564m.
EBay have somewhere in the region of 70m confirmed registered users, with just over 30m using the site in the past 12 months.
Listings for the first quarter of 2003 totalled a record 220m, 59 per cent higher than the 138m for the first quarter of 2002. The company have a market value of $28bn.
eBay’s first quarter profits for 2003 more than double
Forecasts revised upwards for the rest of the year: eBay’s net profits for the first quarter of 2003 more than doubled last year’s figure, breaking the $100m barrier for the first time. With a turnover of $476.5m for the period, the firm generated $104.2m profit, compared with a turnover of $245.1m and profits of just under $50m for the first quarter of 2002.
