eBay Q3 Earnings: Number of Stores Drops 20% From Q2, Active Users Declines

[mandy]

Randy Smythe on eBay's Q3 earnings:

    * Registered Users increased by 6.6 million users from the 2nd Quarter to the 3rd Quarter of 07' but Active users actually declined by 300, 000, for what appears to be the first time in company history. Active users are defined as users who have bid, bought or listed an item on the site in the previous 12 months. Is this a sign of a healthy marketplace business?


    * eBay Stores reached a high of 649,000 stores/shops worldwide in the second quarter of o7' but dropped more than 20% in the 3rd Quarter to 520,000 that is also a 9% drop Y/Y. This is not store listings mind you this is actual store closings. A 20% drop in store closings from one quarter to the next should send shockwaves through the financial community. eBay Stores are not for casual sellers. Storeowners are committed to the site for at least 30 days with each item listed. To see a drop of 20% from one quarter to the next should send off alarms. Where are these 129,000 sellers going?...

full article: http://rksmythe.blogspot.com/2007/10/rid...-ebay.html

eBay beats analysts' estimates:

eBay on Wednesday posted a sharp net loss due to a $1.39 billion write-down on the purchase of Web-based phone service Skype, but said it could meet Wall Street's most bullish full-year forecasts.

The world's largest online auctioneer and payments company reported a third-quarter net loss of $936 million, or 69 cents per diluted share, compared with a profit of $281 million, or 20 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Excluding the write-down and other one-time items, eBay's adjusted profit was $564 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, representing a 53 percent rise over a year ago.

Wall Street analysts, on average, had been looking for a profit, excluding the Skype write-down and some one-time items, of 33 cents per share...

full article: http://www.news.com/eBay-posts-large-qua...g=nefd.top

Q3 earnings call transcript: http://seekingalpha.com/article/50275-eb...ource=feed

eBay International, PayPal Merchant Services, StubHub, Classifieds, and our advertising businesses all performed above our expectations during the quarter.

Now let's walk through some of our key operating metrics. eBay Marketplaces added nearly 7 million confirmed registered users in the quarter, bringing the total user base to 248 million. New listings totaled 556 million in the quarter, a decline of 5% versus Q3 last year, with core listings down 3% and store inventory listings down 14%. New listings totaled 254 million in the U.S. and 301 million internationally.

[I want 1 2]

To see a drop of 20% from one quarter to the next should send off alarms. Where are these 129,000 sellers going?...

Well, I can tell you where one of them went. I had a store during Q2, and closed it during Q3, on July 2, 2007.
My website is doing great, and best of all, I'm saving HUNDREDS of dollars every month in fees. Haven't missed a meal yet !

[bargainbloodhound]

eBay International, PayPal Merchant Services, StubHub, Classifieds, and our advertising businesses all performed above our expectations during the quarter.

The world's largest online auctioneer and payments company

eBay would be up shit's creek without a paddle if it hadn't diversified beyond [glow=red,2,300]THE CORE[/glow].  Hope this helps.

[accentnepal]

Assuming the numbers are comparable  that is a huge drop in stores. I remember when there was a big effort on the stores board to close stores in protest of the fee hike (was it two years ago already?) -- there was hardly a dent in the store numbers.

We all have been saying that eBay was running their business into the ground for years - why would it suddenly show now???

..... or are they really just moving the numbers closer to reality, hiding past exagerations?

[sneakymagenta]

Assuming the numbers are comparable  that is a huge drop in stores.

The numbers aren't comparable.

B(6) Total number of eBay Stores worldwide, hosted on eBay's
Marketplaces trading platforms as of each respective quarter end.
Beginning in Q3-07, eBay China stores are excluded.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071017/20071017006130.html

[FiberGuy]

Skype will be/has been the "albatross hung on ebay's neck"... no doubt.

And I can't help but to snicker.

tee hee

They should just cut their losses now and get into the porn site business.