eBay Inc. CEO, John Donahoe, talked about the new PayPal mobile payment tests being run at 51 Home Depot stores starting this week during eBay’s quarterly earnings call this afternoon. He went one better too. He actually visited a store this morning to try out the technology first-hand.

“This week @PayPal will be launching a pilot to 51 @HomeDepot stores…” #eBayQ411

— Richard Brewer-Hay (@ebayinkblog) January 18, 2012

Leaving his wallet and his mobile phone in his car, he tried the first-hand integration this morning at a San Jose Home Depot. By entering his mobile phone number and PIN, he was able to pay for a hammer in a matter of seconds. The receipt was emailed to him.

“…@PayPal customers will be able to pay for purchases in these @HomeDepot stores by swiping their PayPal card…”

— Richard Brewer-Hay (@ebayinkblog) January 18, 2012

The system works in two ways:
1. Using an in-store terminal, shoppers can buy items by punching in a phone number and PIN linked to their PayPal account
2. Pay using a plastic card issued by PayPal that works like a credit card

“…or entering their mobile phone number/PIN. No wallet or specific type of smartphone is required.” #eBayQ411 $eBay

— Richard Brewer-Hay (@ebayinkblog) January 18, 2012

Here’s an example of a text receipt sent to a mobile phone after purchase:

I think I may head over to Home Depot on Friday to try this out for myself.

Cheers!
RBH

eBay and Jonathan Adler Launch “The eBay Inspiration Shop”
The Inspiration Shop, a shoppable eBay storefront open around the clock in New York City launched this week showcasing a variety of fall merchandise. Interactive store windows featuring new fall must-haves gives shoppers access to a “anytime, anywhere, anyhow” shopping experience. The store windows utilize eBay’s mobile technology, allowing buyers to shop instantly, shoppers can also download eBay’s mobile app to their phones and scan QR codes for products, which takes them directly to eBay’s marketplace [via Huffington Post]

Further News
+ Take a look at this infographic on what social commerce is and how it works.
+ Will online and offline commerce become one and the same in the near future?
+ Mobile commerce to increase by 55% in next five years.

Looking Back on eBay Ink
October 21, 2010: I interviewed Neal Sample, New VP of Architecture for eBay in a video series titled, “8 Minutes with…”. Neal Sample has joined the company as vice president of architecture for eBay Marketplaces. Neal will lead platform architecture strategy for the company, managing the design and delivery of eBay’s platform efforts and further integrating eBay’s range of components – including eBay mobile, Open eBay developer program, cloud computing and social commerce – into the eBay.com platform infrastructure.

eBay Ink Weekend Roundup is a summary of news and updates around eBay, PayPal, Social Media, Technology and E-commerce. Let us know what interests you.

eBay Inc. today reported that revenue for Q3FY11, increased 32% to $3.0 billion, compared to the same period of 2010. We recorded Q3 net income on a GAAP basis of $490.5 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $628.2 million, or $0.48 per diluted share. The year-over-year increase in third quarter GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by solid top-line growth, partially offset by continued investment in key strategic initiatives and the impact of acquisitions.

PayPal
PayPal ended the quarter with 103.0 million active registered accounts, a 14% increase year over year. PayPal revenue increased 32% year over year and PayPal’s net total payment volume (TPV) grew 31% to $29.3 billion in Q3 compared to the same period of last year. PayPal expects to generate more than $3.5 billion in mobile TPV in 2011, up from $750 million in 2010.

eBay Marketplaces
The Marketplaces business also delivered a strong Q3. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) excluding vehicles increased by 16% year over year to $14.7 billion. U.S. GMV excluding vehicles increased 14% year over year. International GMV excluding vehicles increased 18% year over year to $9.1 billion, reflecting solid growth in Europe, continued improved performance in Korea, as well as a positive impact from foreign exchange.

eBay expects to generate almost $5 billion in mobile GMV in 2011, more than double mobile GMV in 2010.

The company’s GSI business, which was acquired in the second quarter of 2011, contributed $202.6 million in revenue for the third quarter.

Business Outlook
• Fourth quarter 2011 — eBay expects net revenues in the range of $3,200 – $3,350 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.47 – $1.53 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.55 – $0.58. GAAP earnings per diluted share includes the gain from the sale of our remaining equity interest in Skype.

• Full year 2011 — eBay now expects net revenues in the range of $11,500 – $11,600 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $2.42 – $2.48 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.98 – $2.01. GAAP earnings per diluted share includes the gain from the sale of our remaining equity interest in Skype.

There are a number of options for you to get more information around today’s earnings announcement. You can listen along to the live eBay earnings call. You can follow along with my tweets in real-time, beginning at 2pm PT.

You can access the full Q3 eBay earnings announcement.

For folks interested in following the entire conversation on StockTwits, go to http://stocktwits.com/symbol/EBAY.

Cheers,
RBH

Have a great weekend everyone. See you Monday!

Cheers,
RBH

eBay’s PayPal Payments Going Offline With Point of Sale Product
John Donahoe, eBay CEO, recently spoke with analysts regarding the new change in the global commerce landscape. In the new retail world, Donahoe believes physical stores will become just another point of access for shoppers, and PayPal will extend payment capability to point-of-sale in the offline world. In 2012, PayPal expects up to 20 national retailers using its point of sale service. [via Forbes]

Further News
+ Online shopping has increased this year (January-June 2011) by 19%, compared to 2010
+ An infographic covering the past two years of Facebook commerce shows 67% of shoppers are influenced by their social media community
+ Mobile payments are expected to jump 76% this year to almost $86 billion worldwide
+ Facebook’s consumer satisfaction ranked lowest in study by American Consumer Satisfaction Index

Looking Back on eBay Ink
July 20, 2010: In what can only be described as remarkable, the eBay community has surpassed the $200 million mark for cumulative funds raised with eBay Giving Works since 2003. This represents year-over-year double digit growth. It goes without saying that the fact that $50 million was raised in 2009 alone, coupled with the unbelievable final auction price of the lunch with Warren Buffett (the highest value charity auction ever sold on eBay at $2.63 million), greatly contributed to this superb achievement.

eBay Ink Weekend Roundup is a summary of news and updates around eBay, PayPal, Social Media, Technology and E-commerce. Let us know what interests you.

This Twitter session contains forward-looking statements relating to our future performance that are based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected financial results for the second quarter and full year 2011, and the future growth in the Payments and Marketplaces businesses.

Our actual results may differ materially from those included in this presentation for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the after effects of the global economic downturn; changes in political, business, and economic conditions; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; the impact and integration of recent and future acquisitions; our increasing need to grow revenues from existing users in established markets; an increasingly competitive environment for our businesses; the complexity of managing an increasingly large enterprise, with a broad range of businesses; our need to manage regulatory, tax, IP and litigation risks (including risks specific to PayPal, Bill Me Later and the financial industry); and our need to upgrade our technology and customer service infrastructure at reasonable cost while adding new features and maintaining site stability.

You can find more information about factors that could affect our operating results in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q (available at http://investor.ebayinc.com). You should not rely on any forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation to update them. All information in this presentation is as of April 27, 2011, and we do not intend, and undertake no duty, to update this presentation.

Cheers,
RBH

eBay Inc. today reported that revenue for Q1FY2011 increased 16% to $2.5 billion, compared to the same period of 2010. We reported Q1 net income on a GAAP basis of $475.9 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $619.0 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, representing a 12% increase for each compared to the same period of 2010.

“In the first quarter, PayPal continued to drive strong growth globally, eBay sharply accelerated growth in the U.S. and we announced several acquisitions that we believe will enhance our leadership and innovation in commerce and payments. The year is off to a strong start,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe.

PayPal grew active registered accounts 16% year over year, ending the quarter with 97.7 million and adding approximately one million active accounts per month for the sixth consecutive quarter. The eBay Marketplaces business saw Gross merchandise volume excluding vehicles (GMV), increase by 8% year over year to $14.5 billion.

Business Outlook
• Second quarter 2011 — eBay expects net revenues in the range of $2.550 to $2.650 billion with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.36 to $0.37 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.45 to $0.46.
• Full year 2011 — eBay now expects net revenues in the range of $10.600 to $10.900 billion with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.53 to $1.58 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.93 to $1.97.

As usual, there are a number of options for you to get more information around today’s earnings announcement. You can listen along to the live eBay earnings call. You can follow along with my tweets in real-time, beginning at 2pm PT. I will be live-blogging here on the homepage of eBay Ink.

You can access the full Q1 eBay earnings announcement.

For folks interested in following the entire conversation on Twitter, the hashtag is #eBayQ111. You can also view on StockTwits.

Cheers,
RBH

For the full year, eBay Inc. posted $9.2 billion in revenue, net income on a GAAP basis of $1.8 billion, or $1.36 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.3 billion, or $1.73 per diluted share.

There are a number of options for you to get more information around today’s earnings announcement. You can listen along to the live eBay earnings call. You can follow along with my tweets in real-time, beginning at 2pm PT. I will be live-blogging here on the homepage of eBay Ink.

You can access the full Q4 eBay earnings announcement.

For folks interested in following the entire conversation on Twitter, the hashtag is #eBayQ410. You can also view on StockTwits.

Cheers,
RBH

Search the hashtag #eBayQ410 for all eBay earnings’ related information.

Related Reads
Webcast of eBay Q4FY10 analyst relations call (2pm PT, 1/19/11)
Investor Relations FAQ
eBay earnings legal information

Cheers,
RBH

The original earnings live-tweeter, eBay continues to be a standard setter. It’s one of the few to incorporate StockTwits into its distribution. Its disclaimer at the start of earnings call live-tweeting sessions, and use of an unique hashtag for each call, are best practices. But too many tweets for my liking, but no one else complains so I’m wrong. Could say more but Richard’s already gotten a lot of ink here. He’s posted a good piece about his set-up and process.

As some of you already know, I worked with our legal team to create guidelines and best practices for corporate disclosure in both short and long-form social media. It resulted in pre-session disclosure tweets; hashtag creation to identify specific quarters; and the use of StockTwits to track the IR discussion around a specific earnings’ call.

Dominic has written a follow-up post entitled “10 IR Twitter accounts revisited: honeymoon is over” that also revisits our work here on Ink:

This quarter eBay began using StockTwits in addition to Twitter for its famous earnings call live tweeting session. But this didn’t seem to help as click-thrus dropped almost 60%. That said, there were fewer links in the tweets than in Q2. We think there are far too many tweets per session and people are likely to tune out. Still, when it comes to earnings call tweeting and generally engaging his audience, there are few as good as Richard Brewer-Hay. For the Q3 season he donned a bra to show support for the Bling My Bra breast cancer fund raising campaign.

Of course, the positive feedback is much appreciated. The goal of Ink – both in its IR capacities and blogging in general – has always been to engage the audience, solicit feedback, and promote healthy conversations and/or debate around specific topics related to all things eBay Inc.

However, it isn’t the first time Dominic has referenced the high number of tweets during the call in a negative light… and he isn’t the only one to do so either. So I guess my first question is, are the tweets helpful to some? Are they informative? Or do you find yourselves saying, “Uh-oh, eBay earnings today, that means RBH will be spamming me for at least an hour with tweets.”? Because if this is the general consensus then I certainly want to revisit the overall purpose.

The first question I ask myself before we do anything here on eBay Ink is “just because I can do it, should I?” The IR-specific tweets are aimed at informing a group of individuals – regardless of size – that may not have had immediate access to the info otherwise. The concern I have if I “turn down the volume” on tweets around earnings is that analysts could start speculating why I’m tweeting about one aspect of the earnings call but neglecting to tweet on another. The logic being that if I’m going to tweet one statement out of our CFO or CEO’s mouth during the call, I need to capture all of it to make sure I don’t misrepresent our earnings as a whole.

My question to you then is what do you like about the IR-specific tweets coming out of eBay? Are they noise or are they helpful? What would you like me to add and/or takeaway?

After two years live-tweeting earnings I must admit the freshness is lost even on me at times so I want to make sure that you’re getting value out of it to begin with. You should know by now that I’m willing to try pretty much anything if I think it’s going to be of benefit to the Ink audience.

Let me know.

Cheers,
RBH