eBay's Profit Rises 19 Percent

eBay published convincing first quarter results yesterday, as the company continues its transformation from auction site to diversified e-commerce business.

In the first quarter of 2013, eBay's profit grew 19 percent to reach $677 million. Powered by 18 percent growth of eBay's payment service PayPal, the company's revenue grew 14 percent. Total revenue reached $3.75 billion in the past quarter, of which PayPal contributed $1.55 billion. eBay's Marketplaces generated $1.96 billion and thus remain the company's primary source of revenue for now.

PayPal has long grown out of its role as a payment service solely for eBay's Marketplaces. In the March quarter PayPal handled 682 million payments from 128 million active users. Active users of eBay's Marketplaces grew from 112 to 116 millions in the past three months.