eBay Facts

eBay statistics which you can't ignore

eBay Worldwide
  • Founded in 1995, eBay.com has a global customer base of 135 million.
  • Every 43 seconds a new user signs up to eBay (October 2004 figures).
  • At any given time, there are approximately 44 million items available on eBay worldwide, and approximately 4 million new items are added each day.
  • eBay members worldwide now trade more than $1,168 worth of goods on the site every second (Based on Q4-04 data).
  • eBay is well-known for its auctions, however members can also buy and sell in fixed-price formats, which accounted for 30.7% of total sales (Q4-04).
  • PayPal (which is an accepted method of payment on eBay) has 63.8 million registered accounts and is available in 45 countries.
  • The most expensive item sold on eBay to date is a private business jet for $4.9 million.
eBay in the UK

  • eBay.co.uk was launched in October 1999.
  • eBay.co.uk is the UK's number one e-commerce site with over 8 million unique visitors every month (Nielsen NetRatings, August 2004).
  • In the UK every third internet user visits eBay.co.uk at least once a month.
  • eBay.co.uk reaches 34% of all active internet users (January 2005 figures).
  • People in the UK spend more time on eBay than any other website.
  • In the UK we spend more money on eBay than they spend on going to the movies.

For an idea of velocities of sale on eBay.co.uk:

  • Every 5 minutes royal memorabilia sells on eBay UK
  • Every 4 minutes a car sells on eBay UK
  • Every 3 minutes a model train sells on eBay UK
  • Every 2 minutes a laptop sells on eBay UK
  • Every minute a mobile phone sells on eBay UK