eBay 1999 Annual Report Download - page 3

Yet through this past year of growth and change, our focus remains the same: to help people trade and
conduct commerce through the Internet on a global basis.
We are focused on our community
eBay is about people. It’s about finding success on your own terms. It’s about giving people the freedom to
work for themselves, to supplement their income and even to make their own living through trading on eBay. It
changes the way people do business. It changes lives. And at eBay, we want to do everything we can to help our
community succeed.
Throughout the year, we focused on improving the core product our users access on a daily basis. We added
features and services such as Gallery and Gallery Search, Mister Lister 2.0, Personal Shopper, My eBay, About
Me and One-time Credit Card Payments. In June, we launched an improved User Interface to help our users find
information on the site more easily. We also introduced the eBay Everywhere concept by enabling our users to
get eBay updates wherever they go via SkyTel pagers and Palm Pilots.
In addition to new features for our buyers, we also introduced several seller tools. We acquired a company
called Billpoint and launched a new program to help facilitate payments between buyers and sellers at eBay. In
December we announced the acquisition of Blackthorne, the maker of Auction Assistant that provides back office
automation for eBay sellers. We also introduced E-stamp to our community to enable them to purchase postage
online.
We strengthened our efforts to create a safe and secure online trading environment for our users through a
number of initiatives. We reinforced and clarified policies, supplied additional information to help our users avoid
illegal and infringing items, and provided our users with a variety of tools such as insurance, escrow and
authentication services. We also created a new level of user verification with the credit card requirement for new
sellers. We took these initiatives proactively to ensure the strength of our community even though we continue
to experience very low fraud rates on the site. We are now more convinced than ever that our efforts in this area
are setting the standards for all companies in this space.
We also continued our work with the eBay Foundation to help build communities in the real world. This
year, the Foundation made about 20 grants totaling $1,380,428 to local and global organizations which focus on
empowerment, such as The Odyssey: World Trek for service and Education, a group that uses the Internet to
promote global awareness among youth. Our grants are determined by a committee of volunteer employees who
carefully evaluate each application brought before them. The eBay Foundation won two major awards for
charitable giving, one from the National Society of Fundraising Executives and another from the Community
Foundation Silicon Valley. We are very proud of the continuing charitable work of the eBay Foundation.
The future
As we look forward, we are very excited about what lies ahead. We have barely begun to tap into eBay’s
first market, the collectibles area, and we believe that the new initiatives we launched in 1999 will prove to be
even bigger opportunities. Now, more than ever, eBay is rapidly establishing the infrastructure for a global
trading platform for almost anything, anywhere. At the same time, we have stayed true to our roots. We have
acted to nurture and protect our existing community of buyers and sellers even as we add new members at
unprecedented rates. This trading platform is constantly renewed and enriched by our innovative and
entrepreneurial community that continues to expand the definition of eBay. As we grow, we will work to ensure
that the eBay platform continues to improve with new features and services, expand to all corners of the world
and change to accommodate all types of users.
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