eBay easily beat targets for the third quarter ended 30 September bringing in revenue of $805.9m rather than the $770m it expected. Revenue was up 52 per cent compared to the same period last year. Consolidated net income was $182.3m giving earnings of 27 cents per share.

Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay, said: "Q3 was a great quarter for eBay. An active community of users and strong demand helped us achieve robust results. We have excellent momentum going into eBay's traditionally strongest quarters."

Active users, people who have bid, listed or sold an item in the last 12 months, increased 38 per cent to 51.7m. Gross Merchandise Volume - the total value of all successfully closed listings on eBay - reached $8.3bn, up 44 per cent. Of this total $2.4bn or 29 per cent was made up of fixed price trading - mainly the Buy It Now feature.

EBay recorded US net transaction revenues of $330.6m, up 29 per cent on last year, and eBay international net revenues were $282.3m, up 82 per cent. ®

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