PayPal Has Good Q1, eBay Not So Much and Skype Hyped for IPO
Last week, eBay announced first quarter 2009 revenue of $2.02 billion, a $171.6 million year-over-year decrease. eBay's marketplace sales dropped 18% in Q1 while Amazon's gained 18%. According to eBay, PayPal and Skype performed well with year-over-year revenue growth.
eBay sees strength for PayPal, expecting the online payment processor to more than double its revenue in the next few years.
The Payments business unit reported a strong quarter with $643.0 million in revenue, an increase of 11 percent year-over-year. Net total payment volume (TPV) for the quarter was $15.86 billion, an increase of 10 percent. The revenue and net TPV growth was driven by continued momentum in PayPal Merchant Services and the contribution made by Bill Me Later, according to eBay.
Continued increases in PayPal penetration on eBay helped offset the negative impact of gross merchandise volume (GMV) on revenue and TPV. Active registered accounts reached 73.1 million, an increase of 22 percent year-over-year. The Payments business will continue to focus on the acquisition of new merchants, greater penetration into the Marketplaces business and the growth of Bill Me Later.
Meanwhile, Skype contributed $153.2 million in revenue for the quarter, representing 21 percent year-over-year growth. Skype added 37.9 million new users during the quarter and ended the period with more than 443.2 million registered users. In addition to growing its user base, Skype is focused on product strategies to enhance customer engagement.
On April 14, 2009, eBay Inc. announced plans to separate Skype into an independent company during the first half of 2010, via an initial public offering. It might be a good idea to do the same for PayPal. If so, I'd certainly put PayPal first on the list and continue to build some Skype Hype.
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