Strong mobile growth
The ecommerce giant had excellent fourth quarter results: net profit grew to 620 million euro, a
13 % increase. Turnover also grew 13 % to 3.3 billion euro. For the full year, turnover reached 12 billion euro, a 14
% increase. Net profit grew 9
%, to 2.1 billion euro.
“The holiday shopping season clearly showing how online, mobile and other
omni-channel commerce capabilities are changing how consumers shop and pay”,
CEO John Donahoe said. “Mobile exceeded expectations for the year. Our total mobile commerce volume grew 88 percent.
[…] And mobile added more than 14 million customers. PayPal and eBay
together create an incredibly strong global commerce ecosystem for consumers
and merchants, and we continue to see tremendous growth opportunities ahead.”
For the current quarter, eBay is expected to have a 3 to 3.1 billion euro turnover, with 13.1 to 13.5 billion euro for the full
year.
Paypal squabble
PayPal managed a 19 % turnover growth in 2013, reaching 4.9 billion euro,
but it is still the subject of a huge row. Billionaire Carl Icahn believes the current management is neglecting PayPal
and he wants PayPal to be sold. That should help PayPal perform much better.
Even President David Marcus had to admit recently that PayPal is losing market
share to competitors like Square (belonging to Twitter’s co-founder Jack
Dorsey).
EBay purchased PayPal in 2002 for 1 billion euro and is not considering ditching its subsidiary. “The board has
extensively researched a PayPal spin-off. Our conclusion was that the company’s interests are best served with the
current strategy”, the company has stated vehemently.
