eBay 2007 Annual Report Download - page 14

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Please find page 14 of the 2007 eBay annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

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Online Advertising and Other Services
We work with strategic partners in a variety of areas, such as online advertising, mailing and other services, that
allow us to extend the monetization of our platforms and user base.
Key Services for Buyers and Sellers
We have developed a number of features on our platforms in the areas of Trust and Safety, Customer Support
and Value-Added Tools and Services, as well as Loyalty Programs. These features are designed to make users more
comfortable dealing with unknown trading partners and completing commercial transactions on the Internet.
Trust and Safety
Feedback Forum: Our Feedback Forum encourages users to provide feedback ratings and comments on other
users with whom they trade. Users’ profiles, which include these feedback ratings and comments, can be viewed by
any of our other users. Every registered user has a feedback profile that may contain compliments, criticisms and/or
other comments by users who have conducted business with that user. The Feedback Forum requires feedback to be
related to specific transactions and provides an easy tool for users to match specific transactions with the user names
of their trading partners. This information is recorded in a profile that includes a feedback rating for the user, with
feedback sorted according to whether the feedback has been provided over the past month, six months or twelve
months. Users who develop positive reputations have color-coded star symbols displayed next to their user names to
indicate the number of positive feedback ratings they have received. In addition to leaving an overall Feedback
rating (positive, neutral or negative) for a seller, buyers also can leave anonymous Detailed Seller Ratings (“DSR”)
that cannot be viewed by the seller in four areas: item as described, communication, shipping time and shipping and
handling charges. The Feedback Forum has several automated features designed to detect and prevent certain forms
of abuse, such as a user leaving positive feedback about himself or herself through multiple accounts. We recently
announced updates to our feedback system, including removing the ability of sellers to leave negative feedback for
buyers and providing sellers with additional tools designed to avoid negative feedback.
SafeHarbor Program: We also offer the SafeHarbor program, which provides guidelines for trading and user
dispute resolution. Our SafeHarbor staff investigates users’ complaints of possible misuse of eBay platforms and
takes appropriate action, including issuing warnings to users, ending and removing listings, or suspending users
from bidding on or listing items for sale.
Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program: The VeRO Program lets intellectual property rights owners request
the removal of listings that offer items or contain materials that infringe on their rights. This helps to protect
community members from purchasing items that may be counterfeit or otherwise unauthorized.
Customer Support
We devote significant resources to providing personalized, accurate and timely support services to our
community of users. Buyers and sellers can contact us through a variety of means, including email, online text chat
and, in certain circumstances, telephone. We continue to focus our resources on improving our accessibility,
increasing our capacity, expanding our category-specific support, extending our online self-help features and
improving our systems and processes to allow us to provide efficient and effective support. In addition, top eBay
sellers who qualify for our PowerSeller program receive prioritized customer support.
Value-Added Tools and Services
eBay users have access to a variety of “pre-trade” and “post-trade” tools and services to enhance their user
experience and to make trading faster, easier and safer for them. “Pre-trade” tools and services are intended to
simplify the listing process. “Post-trade” tools and services are designed to make transactions easier and more
convenient to complete.
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