Auction giant eBay Inc. , continuing its international
expansion, has launched three new local sites for users in
Ireland,
Switzerland and
New Zealand.
All three country sites are charging listing and final value fees and are
are extensions of larger platforms (UK, Australia and Germany), according to
investment analysts at Goldman, Sachs.
GS advised its clients today that “we do not expect significant near-term
impact on revenues from this expansion.”
eBay has been making a strong effort to go global, and recently purchased Paris-based online auction company iBazar S.A. in a stock deal valued
at about $100 million.
iBazar claims 2.4 million registered users across the eight countries in
which it operates — France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and Brazil.
Citing figures from Forrester Research, GS said that Ireland is estimated to
represent approximately 0.7 percent of total Western European e-commerce (B2C
and B2B) in 2001 while Switzerland is estimated to represent 4.9 percent. New
Zealand is estimated to represent approximately 1.4 percent of total Asia
Pacific e-commerce.
GS said it expects international revenue to contribute about $9 million to
eBay for the first quarter of this year. “We continue to believe that eBay
will have a strong first quarter, delivering revenue of $160-plus million and
likely upside to earnings per share,” GS analysts said.
“We continue to believe eBay is a core Internet holding with a US Recommended
List rating,” GS said. eBay closed Tuesday at $38.43.