Strong growth around the world from its PayPal online payments service lifted Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY - news) 's performance above expectations in the final quarter of last year, fuelling a 3 per cent jump in its stock price in after-market trading on Wednesday.
However, the US internet company continued to record only slow progress in turning round the traditional auction and other e-commerce businesses that make up its marketplaces division.
John Donahoe, chief executive, said he was not "not happy with where we are in the US", following the effects of an e-commerce overhaul in its home market last March.
However, he said the company was "on track" with its turnround plans and that a number of indicators in its business pointed to a stronger pick-up ahead.
At the same time, the Ebay chief tried to shift attention to mobile and other, newer forms of e-commerce.
Nearly $2bn of the $54bn of goods traded on the company's markets last year were bought from mobile phones, Mr Donahoe said, with the volume of business expected to double in 2011.
"It is really rapidly blurring the line between online and offline [commerce]," he added, forcing merchants to reassess the interaction of the two.
PayPal generated more than half of its business outside the US for the first time in the final months of last year, lifting its payments revenues to $926m, up 22 per cent from the year before.
The advance pushed PayPal's share of Ebay's revenues up to 39 per cent from 35 per cent the year before, excluding the impact of Skype, which was spun off during the year.
The continued growth, along with an increase in the payments division's operating profit margin to 21 per cent, above the 18-20 per cent Ebay had been forecasting, came as PayPal added 1m new accounts a month in the final quarter, reaching 94.4m.
Revenues from the marketplace division rose 4 per cent, below analysts' expectations, as the company continued to wrestle with its turnround.
An earlier overhaul of its markets in Europe (news) had eventually brought strong performance in some markets, Mr Donahoe said, with the value of goods bought in the UK in the final months of last year up 19 per cent and the new fashion sales business performing strongly in a number of places.
Overall, Ebay reported a 5 per cent increase in revenues to $2.5bn, though underlying growth reached 10 per cent after excluding the effects of the Skype sale. On the same basis, net income rose 24 per cent to $559m, or 52 cents a share, helped partly by a lower tax rate.
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