It was a mighty quarter for eBay.
After the close of regular-hours trading on Wall Street Wednesday, the global commerce platform and payments leader reported that revenue for the first quarter (ending March 31, 2012) increased 29% to $3.3 billion, compared to the same period of 2011.
“The first quarter was a strong start to the year for us with momentum continuing in our Marketplaces, PayPal and GSI Commerce businesses,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. “We believe that innovation in retail today is technology driven, and consumers are embracing smarter, easier, better ways to shop. We are enabling commerce in this new retail environment, supporting and partnering with sellers of all sizes and giving consumers worldwide the ability to shop anytime, anywhere, for whatever they want.”
A huge part of eBay’s overall success for the quarter was PayPal’s growth during the same period.
The company’s PayPal business delivered an outstanding first quarter performance. PayPal ended the quarter with 109.8 million active registered accounts, a 12% increase over the first quarter of 2011.
PayPal revenue increased 32% year over year, driven primarily by increased penetration on eBay as well as continued merchant and consumer adoption.
Among the biggest developments for PayPal during the quarter was a deal reached with The Home Depot to launch PayPal payments in all of its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores.
