Looks May Be Deceiving For EBay Germany
Published June 9th, 2006
Forbes.com
Bear Stearns analyst Robert S. Peck warned investors to be careful what they ask for when it comes to eBay listings growth.He said investors have been asking why U.S. core listings growth on the online auction site haven’t rebounded as strongly as eBay’s German market, which has seen a 34% year-over-year increase in listings so far in 2006 versus 6% in the United States.Listings in books and music categories on the German platform have been extremely strong, Peck said, with a combined year-over-year growth of 233% and account for 30% of all listings in Germany.But, Peck said Germany’s growth may not be the kind of success investors think it is, when they compare Germany with the U.S. market. The analyst said the listings growth in Germany for books and music listings was driven in large part by the fact that these two categories’ listing fees were adjusted down when the rest of eBay’s categories were adjusted up in February 2006, inflating listing counts.
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