eBay 2000 Annual Report Download - page 2

To Our Stockholders, Partners, Employees and the eBay Community:
A Year of Accomplishments
The year 2000 was a time of great accomplishments at eBay. In just 12 months, we dramatically
expanded our marketplace in several important ways. For starters, we added thousands of new product
categories as well as dozens of new services and site features. Our marketing and promotions eÅorts produced
growing ubiquity for eBay, both on and oÅ the Internet, making more people in more places aware of eBay and
bringing them to the site in greater numbers than ever before. We introduced Ñxed-price trading to our
community, reaching a whole new type of user for the Ñrst time. And we continued to extend the eBay
marketplace to the most productive e-commerce markets on the planet.
Perhaps what makes our accomplishments in 2000 even more impressive is that they were achieved
during a period of great turmoil in our industry and in a manner that signiÑcantly improved our already solid
Ñnancial base.
Come what may, eBay and its community prospered in 2000, and we are extremely pleased by the
momentum we have going into 2001.
A Thriving Marketplace
At eBay we do one thing. We work every day to be the world's largest and most compelling Internet
commerce platform. To further that goal in 2000, our seasoned management team stayed focused on attracting
more customers, expanding the goods traded on the site, making the user experience easier, safer, more fun
and exciting, and spreading the eBay marketplace to more places around the world.
eBay ended the year with over 22 million registered users, representing 125 percent growth over the
10 million users we had at the end of 1999. To put that in perspective, eBay's community is now larger than
the population of Texas, the second largest state in the Union. And our community is more diverse than ever,
featuring homemakers, major corporations and everyone in between, buying and selling practically anything.
Our users listed more than 265 million items on the site in 2000, up 104 percent from 1999.
Our deepening integration into AOL's site throughout the year, as well as our enhanced aÇliates
program, which in Q4 reached 13,000 partners, helped drive user growth by putting eBay in front of more
people than ever before. Marketing promotions with such powerful and diverse brands as AOL Time Warner,
Disney, Visa, The History Channel and General Motors, to name just a few, were also critical in reaching new
users and in user retention.
In 2000, eBay stepped up its oÉine marketing eÅorts by running its Ñrst national advertising campaign.
And on the public relations front, eBay continued to be at the center of popular culture, receiving attention in
hit TV shows, movies, and in thousands of local, regional and national news stories.
One of the reasons so many people come to eBay is the variety of goods and services they can Ñnd in our
marketplace. During 2000, eBay added more than 5,000 new categories, including new meta-categories such
as personal care, clothing and accessories and home and garden. In the fourth quarter alone, eBay users in the
clothing and accessories category transacted over $40 million in gross merchandise sales. And people are just
beginning to realize that in 2000, eBay became the largest online destination for computers and electronics,
used cars, toys, sporting goods, and jewelry and gemstones.
The acquisition of Half.com in July was an important milestone in our history. With the acquisition, eBay
formally introduced Ñxed-price trading to its community. In just a few short months, Half.com achieved
tremendous results. By December, Half had more than 10 million items listed on the site and was the #3
online retailer in terms of traÇc, according to Media Metrix. Half's success, combined with the early success
of our new ""Buy-It-Now'' feature, makes it clear that Ñxed-price trading will play a growing role in eBay's
future.