Our marketplace exists as an online trading platform that enables a global community
of buyers and sellers to interact and trade with one another. Our role is to create,
maintain, and expand the technological functionality, safety, ease-of-use, and
reliability of our trading platform while, at the same time, supporting the growth
and success of our community of users.
Our trading platform is a fully automated, topically arranged, intuitive and
easy-to-use online service that is available 24-hours a day, seven-days a week,
enabling sellers to list items for sale in either auction or fixed-price formats,
buyers to bid for and purchase items of interest, and all eBay users to browse
through listed items from any place in the world at any time. The platform includes
software tools and services, available either for no charge or for a fee, that
allow buyers and sellers to more easily trade with one another. Our software
tools and services — such as Turbo Lister, Seller’s Assistant, Selling Manager
and Selling Manager Pro, which help automate the selling process; the Shipping
Calculator, which makes it easier for buyers and sellers to calculate shipping
costs; the eBay Toolbar, which helps eBay users stay connected with eBay wherever
they are on the Internet; and PayPal, which facilitates the online exchange
of funds — are all designed to make our trading process easier and more efficient.
Whether provided by us or our commercial partners, services such as our global
payments platform at PayPal.com, trust and safety programs, user verification,
buyer protection and assurance programs, postage and other shipping services,
vehicle inspections, escrow, authentication and appraisal are all intended to
create a faster, easier and safer trading environment.
Our Global Payments Platform
Our global payments platform, PayPal, enables any individual or business with
an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online.
Through PayPal, we intend to accelerate the velocity of trade on eBay and other
online businesses by eliminating the various obstacles presented by traditional
payment methods. The service builds on the existing financial infrastructure
of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes one of the world’s most advanced
proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment
solution. The platform has quickly become a global leader in online payment
solutions with over 40 million account members worldwide. Buyers and sellers
on eBay, online retailers, online businesses, and traditional offline businesses
are transacting using our global payments platform, which is available in 38
countries around the world. PayPal was acquired by eBay in October 2002 and
is now located in San Jose, California.
Our Community
Our community of users is the largest and one of the most loyal online trading
communities on the Internet. We have aggregated a significant number of buyers,
sellers, and items listed for sale, which, in turn, has resulted in an extremely
vibrant trading environment. Our sellers enjoy generally high conversion rates
and buyers enjoy an extensive selection of broadly priced goods and services.
Key components of our community philosophy are maintaining an honest and open
marketplace and treating individual users with respect. We seek to maintain
the satisfaction and loyalty of our frequent buyers and sellers by offering
a variety of community and support features such as announcement and bulletin
boards, customer support boards and personal pages, as well as other topical
or category-specific information exchanges. In addition, through the PayPal
global payments platform, we enable our community of eBay users, as well as
the users of other online trading platforms, to pay for their transactions securely,
easily and quickly. By applying a consistent set of policies and fees to our
community, we have created a level playing field that lets individuals and businesses
of all types and sizes access broad markets and compete equally.
Our Value Proposition
Our online marketplace makes inefficient markets more efficient.
Traditional offline marketplaces can be inefficient because:
• They are fragmented and regional, making it difficult and expensive for buyers
and sellers to meet, exchange information and complete transactions;
• They offer a limited variety and breadth of goods;
• They often have high transaction costs due to intermediaries; and
• They are information inefficient, as buyers and sellers lack a reliable and
convenient means of setting prices.
We make these inefficient marketplaces more efficient because:
• Our global community of users can easily and inexpensively communicate, exchange
information and complete transactions;
• Our marketplace includes tens of millions of items creating a very wide variety
and selection of goods;
• We bring buyers and sellers together for much lower fees than traditional
intermediaries; and
• Our marketplace provides for efficient information exchange.
In particular, large markets with broad buyer and seller bases, wide product
ranges, and moderate shipping costs have been successful on eBay. Our marketplace
is most effective, relative to available alternatives, at addressing markets
of new and scarce goods, end-of-life products and used and vintage items.
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