Item 1. BUSINESS

Overview

eBay Inc. was formed as a sole proprietorship in September 1995 and was incorporated in California in May 1996. In April 1998, we reincorporated in Delaware, and in September 1998, we completed the initial public offering of our common stock. Our principal executive offices are located at 2025 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, California, 95125, and our telephone number is (408) 376-7008. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, when we refer to “we,” “our,” “us,” or “eBay” in this annual report on Form 10-K, we mean eBay Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Notably, on February 13, 2020, we completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and on July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta ASA (“Adevinta”). We believe that the transaction with Adevinta will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader through our Marketplace platforms which connect millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. The platforms include our online marketplace located at www.ebay.com and its localized counterparts, including off-platform businesses in South Korea, Japan, and Turkey, as well as eBay’s suite of mobile apps. Our platforms are accessible through an online experience (e.g. desktop and laptop computers), iOS and Android mobile devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets) and our application programming interfaces (“APIs,” platform access for third party software developers).

Agreement to Transfer eBay Classifieds Group

On July 20, 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer our Classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments, and approximately 540 million shares in Adevinta. Together, the total consideration payable under the definitive agreement is valued at approximately $9.2 billion, based on the closing trading price of Adevinta’s outstanding shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange on July 17, 2020. We believe that the transaction will close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Please see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “The closing of the proposed transfer of our Classifieds business is subject to various risks and uncertainties, may not be completed in accordance with expected plans or on the currently contemplated terms or timeline, or at all, and may not generate the anticipated returns to eBay, and the pending transfer may be disruptive to our Classifieds business.”

Our Strategy

As a global commerce leader and third-party marketplace, our technologies and services are designed to provide buyers choice and a breadth of relevant inventory from around the globe, and to enable sellers’ access to eBay’s 185 million buyers worldwide. Our business model and pricing are designed so that our business is successful when our sellers are successful. We earn revenue primarily through fees collected on successfully closed sales and our growth drivers of managed payments and first-party advertising.

eBay’s strategy is to leverage technology to enhance the marketplace experience for our customers, to drive growth in Gross Merchandise Volume (as discussed below, “GMV”), while increasing the rate of revenue growth through our managed payments and advertising initiatives, and delivering healthy operating margins. Following the announcement of the StubHub and Classifieds transactions, we stated our intention as an enterprise focused on our Marketplace platforms to embark on a multi-year journey to build more compelling experiences for our consumers, become the partner of choice for sellers and strengthen trust in relationships with buyers.

eBay’s managed payments has continued to expand and scale globally following the expiration of the PayPal Operating Agreement in July 2020, delivering buyers and sellers a simplified end-to-end payments experience. Starting with five of our largest markets — the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada — we have focused on transitioning business sellers to the new payments platform, and we launched managed payments for consumer sellers in the fourth quarter of 2020. As a result, as of December 31, 2020 there were over 1 million sellers active in managed payments. We also announced the first quarter of 2021 expansion plans to France, Italy, and Spain, along with enablement for eBay for Charity sellers in the U.S. and U.K. to leverage the experience. Through managed payments, we’re able to provide a simpler experience for current and next-generation customers, consistent with today’s retail standards. We can offer buyers more flexibility and choice in how they’d like to pay and offer sellers a more streamlined way to run their businesses. We continue to be on track to intermediate payments for the majority of our sellers in 2021 and to complete the full roll-out for payments by 2022.

Our advertising business remains focused on growing our Promoted Listings (a first-party advertising offering) while reducing non-strategic, third-party advertising. We are providing sellers with data-driven recommendations to optimize their conversion, while testing and building more technology features to drive growth, position eBay as the seller’s platform of choice, and surface relevant inventory to buyers.

Our Customer Offerings

We provide a number of features for our buyers and sellers that align with our approach to becoming the partner of choice for sellers and driving trusted buyer relationships. These offerings are designed to build trust and confidence on our platform, and drive GMV.

In order to further strengthen our buyers’ confidence and trust in our services, we offer “eBay Money Back Guarantee,” which allows buyers to receive their money back if the item they ordered does not arrive, is faulty or damaged, or does not match the listing. eBay Money Back Guarantee covers most items purchased on the eBay platform in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia, through a qualifying payment method. eBay also provides buyers with a “Best Price Guarantee,” which offers buyers in the U.S. 110% of the price difference if they find an item for less on a competitor’s website within 48 hours of making a purchase. In Australia, Best Price Guarantee beats deals from approved retailers by 5%, and in the U.K., offers price matching. In 2020, eBay launched "Authenticity Guarantee," our new independent authentication service on all watches sold over $2,000 in the U.S., and expanded the service to the collectible sneakers category, authenticating select sneaker styles and brands on the marketplace. Additionally, to meet consumer demand for top products, eBay launched a new destination to feature officially “Certified Refurbished” products from top brands.

On the eBay Marketplace platforms, the majority of transactions in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany include free shipping for buyers, and we encourage sellers to offer free returns. We also work to create confidence in our ability to meet buyers’ delivery and tracking expectations. In the U.K. and Australia, we launched eBay Virtual Tracking Number to substantially increase package tracking and provide buyers and sellers with ease and confidence.

To become the partner of choice for sellers, eBay continuously invests in resources and programs to grow and enhance the seller tools ecosystem. Seller initiated offers allows sellers to send custom deals directly to buyers, and we launched several new features in this offering and drove $1.25 billion in GMV in 2020. Additionally, a new collaboration with UPS launched in the U.S., helps provide sellers with more options to support their shipping needs and access to discounted rates, saving them time and money. We supported seller profitability during the holiday season by working with the carriers on our platform to eliminate peak season shipping surcharges on eBay. For sellers, eBay also launched new features like “Image Clean-Up,” using computer vision to enable sellers to create cleaner images in their listing and optimize for Google Shopping and “Time Away,” which allows sellers to update their listings and protect their on-time delivery record while they are on vacation and provides buyers with more accurate shipping estimates. Seller Hub capabilities continue to grow with the launch of several new features such as expanded “Multi-User Account Access” authentication capabilities, real-time competitive pricing, and traffic data and enhancement of our competitive pricing analytics to include the search of item specifics in addition to Terapeak.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we put specific seller protections in place to support our sellers’ businesses during carrier delays, not penalizing sellers for delayed shipping or canceled orders to protect their seller performance standards. To accommodate for United States Postal Service (USPS) delays, we protected sellers to ensure they were covered for any shipping defects and delays beyond their control by automatically extending estimated delivery dates as necessary to give buyers more reasonable expectations of when their items will arrive. We also waited to evaluate any “item not received” cases until after the extended, estimated delivery date.

To help sellers keep positive momentum in their business during the pandemic, we increased the number of monthly, zero insertion fee listings that we provide to most sellers. We also allowed all eBay Store subscribers to list additional, fixed price listings for free in order to test new inventory that buyers may be searching for in the COVID-19 environment, and we offered monthly, zero insertion fee listings in select categories for sellers enrolled in managed payments.

In 2020, eBay launched new features like Dark Mode to ease the shopping experience and create more accessibility for our customers; “Great Price Signal” to highlight competitively priced items from trusted sellers; and “Secure Local PickUp” to help connect local buyers and sellers, allowing them to receive items quicker and more secure through the use of a QR code. More than 1,000,000 QR codes have been scanned since Secure Local Pickup’s launch in July. eBay’s Developer Program launched new APIs for managed payments, Offers to Buyers, eBay for Charity, and more, for developers to help their businesses thrive with eBay.

Our Impact and Responsibility

eBay’s purpose is to empower people and create economic opportunity for all through our technology for our global community of users. Every day, people build businesses on our platforms. With low cost of entry for sellers, we offer a highly accessible way for all types of users to interact in a global marketplace that’s inclusive and connects people of all backgrounds. Accordingly, we prioritize our corporate responsibility efforts to impact the areas of economic empowerment and sustainable commerce. Key economic programs include eBay for Charity, the eBay Foundation, and our small business enablement efforts, such as our Up & Running program.

eBay for Charity empowers buyers and sellers to support charities around the world. In 2020, eBay for Charity matched donations made to Feeding America, Direct Relief, and Opportunity Fund, and offered U.S. shoppers the opportunity to buy Gifts That Give Back to support COVID-19 relief efforts. In 2020, nearly $123 million was raised by buyers and sellers to support charities via eBay for Charity.

The eBay Foundation helps to build economically vibrant and thriving communities. In 2020, the eBay Foundation granted over $16 million to support small businesses, untapped communities, and COVID-19 relief efforts, and offered an additional $2,500 per employee in matching gifts for a total of up to $5,000 per employee. To date, the eBay Foundation has awarded more than $65 million to more than 1,800 nonprofits.

We are champions of inclusive commerce and in 2020, born out of the pandemic and an extension of our Retail Revival program, we launched the Up & Running initiative to help more small businesses start and grow online. Through the program, new eBay sellers received fee discounts and resources to run their business on eBay. The Up & Running program saw global adaptations in over 25 markets around the world, and expanded efforts with the Up & Running Grants program, which will reward a number of eBay U.S. small business sellers a grant package worth $10,000.

eBay continued its work to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025. We joined the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Program. Additionally, we strive to integrate best practices in our offices and data center operations and to continually reduce our environmental footprint. This year, eBay was also recognized for its commitment to sustainability and responsible business on the DJSI World and North American Indices, and ranked on the CDP A list.

Financial Information

We measure our footprint in our addressable market according to GMV. GMV consists of the total value of all successfully closed transactions between users on our platforms during the applicable period, regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually completed the transaction. In 2020, we generated $100 billion in GMV, of which approximately 62 percent was generated outside the U.S. We believe that GMV provides a useful measure of the overall volume of closed transactions that flow through our platforms in a given period, notwithstanding the inclusion in GMV of closed transactions that are not ultimately consummated.

At the end of 2020, eBay had 185 million active buyers and over 19 million sellers. In 2020, we had approximately 1.6 billion live listings globally. The term “active buyer” means, as of any date, all buyer accounts that successfully closed a transaction on Marketplace platforms within the previous 12-month period. Buyers may register more than once and, as a result, may have more than one account. “Sellers” include consumer-to-consumer (“C2C”) and business-to-consumer (“B2C”) businesses and individual sellers on the platform.

We generate revenue primarily from the transactions we successfully enable and through marketing services, and our growth initiatives of payments and advertising. The majority of our revenue comes from a take rate on the GMV of transactions closed on our platforms. We define “take rate” as net transaction revenues divided by GMV.

Our platforms are designed to enable our buyers and sellers to leverage our economies of scale and capital investments, such as in sales and marketing, mobile, customer acquisition, technology innovation and customer service.

Notable Business Transactions in 2020

We regularly review and manage our investments to ensure that they support eBay’s strategic direction and complement our disciplined approach to value creation, profitability and capital allocation. In the first quarter of 2020, eBay completed the sale of StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. In the third quarter of 2020, we entered into a definitive agreement to transfer eBay Classifieds Group to Adevinta; see “Agreement to Transfer eBay Classifieds Group” above for more details.

Competition

We encounter vigorous competition in our business from numerous sources. Our users can list, sell, buy, and pay for similar items through a variety of competing online, mobile and offline channels. These include, but are not limited to, retailers, distributors, liquidators, import and export companies, auctioneers, catalog and mail-order companies, classifieds, directories, search engines, commerce participants (consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business), shopping channels and networks. As our product offerings continue to broaden into new categories of items and new commerce formats, we expect to face additional competition from other online, mobile and offline channels for those new offerings. We compete on the basis of price, product selection and services, and global scale.

For more information regarding competitive factors impacting our business, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Substantial and increasingly intense competition worldwide in ecommerce may harm our business” and “We are subject to regulatory activity and antitrust litigation under competition laws that could adversely impact our business.”

Government Regulation

Government regulation impacts key aspects of our business. In particular, we are subject to laws and regulations that affect the ecommerce industry in many countries where we operate. With nine additional states adopting Internet sales tax laws in 2020, some buyers across the U.S. encounter sales tax for the first time on eBay. To date, more than 40 states have implemented Internet sales tax and digital service tax legislation. Additionally, a digital service tax (DST) was implemented in Italy, India and Turkey in 2020, and we are complying with the legislation. In the U.K. the government also approved the law to introduce a 2% DST. Tax collection responsibility and the additional costs associated with complex sales and use tax collection, remittance and audit requirements could create additional burdens for buyers and sellers on our websites and mobile platforms.

For more information regarding regulatory risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight” and “Our business and its users are subject to Internet sales tax and sales reporting and record-keeping obligations.”

Seasonality

We expect transaction activity patterns on our platforms to mirror general consumer buying patterns. Please see the additional information in “Item 7: Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” under the caption “Seasonality.”

Technology

The eBay Marketplace uses a combination of proprietary technologies and services as well as technologies and services provided by others. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, buyer, seller and developer tools and transaction processing, database and network applications that help enable our users to reliably and securely complete transactions on our sites. Our technology infrastructure simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our infrastructure has been designed around industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences.

In support of our commitment to innovation and a better customer experience, we have been on a multi-year evolution to modernize our marketplace. Through technologies like artificial intelligence, we are anticipating the needs of buyers, sellers and developers, empowering entrepreneurs looking to grow their business, and making the platform more accessible to everyone. We aim to create highly personalized and inspiring shopping experiences powered by advanced technologies.

For information regarding technology-related risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “Systems failures or cyberattacks and resulting interruptions in the availability of or degradation in the performance of our websites, applications, products or services could harm our business” and “Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.”

Intellectual Property

We regard the protection of our intellectual property, including our trademarks (particularly those covering the eBay name), patents, copyrights, domain names, trade dress and trade secrets as critical to our success. We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights in products and services. We routinely enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors and nondisclosure agreements with parties with whom we conduct business to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information.

We pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks and service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Additionally, we have filed U.S. and international patent applications covering certain aspects of our proprietary technology. Effective trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress and trade secret protection is typically expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming and may not be successful.

We have registered our core brands as trademarks and domain names in the U.S. and a large number of other jurisdictions and have in place an active program to continue to secure trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in markets of interest. If we are unable to register or protect our trademarks or domain names, we could be adversely affected in any jurisdiction in which our trademarks or domain names are not registered or protected. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others.

From time to time, third parties have claimed - and others will likely claim in the future - that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We are typically involved in a number of such legal proceedings at any time. Please see the information in “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” and in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “The listing or sale by our users of items that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of rights owners, including pirated or counterfeit items, may harm our business,” and “We may be unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights and face ongoing risk from patent litigation and allegations by third parties that we are infringing their intellectual property rights.”

Human Capital Management

As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 12,700 people globally. Approximately 6,000 of our employees were located in the U.S. eBay has robust people-focused programs to support and retain our employees globally and to attract our future employees. Our recruitment, development, compensation and benefits and wellness programs are designed to reflect our cultural values and our goal to make eBay competitive in the market for talent and a place that is welcoming and inclusive. eBay’s management is focused on delivering programs that develop and support our people and connect them with our customers, our community, and each other.

Culture

In 2020, after engaging with our workforce, customers, and investors, CEO Jamie Iannone introduced “Our DNA”, a framework to link all employees to our purpose, our role in people’s lives, our strategic vision, and our beliefs.

Our Purpose: We empower people and create economic opportunity for all

Our Role in People’s Lives: A marketplace that brings people together to spark unexpected joy

Our Strategic Vision: Become the best global marketplace for buyers and sellers through a tech-led re-imagination of eBay

Our Beliefs: These beliefs reflect our culture at its best and our shared desire to be part of a company with a wonderful, productive, fun way of working where we deliver the best we can for ourselves as employees and for our customers.

• Empower our community

• Innovate boldly

• Deliver with impact

• Be for everyone

• Act with integrity

Pandemic Response

Adapting to working during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major focus of our people programs. When companies were required to close their workplaces, eBay quickly moved to facilitate our people working from home. eBay provided equipment, systems, and resources for home connection, including for our customer experience team members who all shifted to working from home. In 2020, eBay made two payments to all employees to allow them to cover individual needs and well-being. We also increased work flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities and provided back-up in-home child and adult care in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany and Ireland. eBay has continually engaged with our people to support physical and mental health for them and their families through online wellness resources, webinars, telehealth access and expansion of company-paid mental health support as well as additional training for managers. In recognition of the extraordinary circumstances affecting the team, we also provided an additional paid day off globally for all employees and contractors.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

eBay’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program is focused on three strategic areas – workforce, workplace and marketplace. Equity is at the forefront of all we do to hire, grow, and keep top talent, enhance corporate performance, and foster a welcoming and inclusive place to work, learn and grow. Starting with a comprehensive diversity recruiting strategy, we review and enhance processes, including deepening data insights, updating learning and development practices and a new governance model to ensure that a diverse set of candidates are connected to eBay and can see themselves as being successful here. Our Communities of Inclusion welcome and connect eBay employees all over the world to help us build and nurture employees, allies and external communities. They host events and forums to connect employees to groups organized around age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, religion, military status, parental status and sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. We are currently preparing our fifth Global Diversity & Inclusion report for publication later this year that shares stories and workforce data.

Acting with Integrity

We reaffirmed and expanded our commitment to ethics and acting with integrity in 2020. We took big and small actions to ensure that we are open, honest, ethical and authentic with a company-wide webinar meeting and a series of leadership trainings with an outside ethics expert, quarterly “tone from the top” engagements between leaders with their employees, and daily ethics contests during Ethics and Compliance Week.

Parental Leave

In addition to competitive pay and benefits, eBay offers additional parental time off beyond what’s required by law in the U.S. and in most countries where we operate. This benefit is offered for parents welcoming a new child into the family whether by giving birth, adopting or welcoming a child through surrogacy. This is an important demonstration of our commitment to working parents and their families.

Employee Voice & Values

In addition to multiple channels for sharing feedback, we also regularly survey our employees on trust and engagement, their experience with diversity, equity and inclusion as well as ethics and integrity. Our employees highly value eBay’s approach to Impact and Responsibility and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion discussed earlier in the report. These commitments are core to our business and they positively impact recruitment, engagement and retention.

Available Information

Our Internet address is www.ebay.com. Our investor relations website is located at investors.ebayinc.com. We make available free of charge on our investor relations website under the heading “Financial Information - SEC Filings” our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with (or furnished to) the SEC at www.sec.gov.

We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs on our investor relations website. Company sustainability information for investors is available on our investor relations website under the heading “ESG Investors.” Corporate governance information, including our governance guidelines for our Board of Directors (“Board”), Board committee charters and code of conduct, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Corporate Governance.”

The contents of our websites and webcasts and information that can be accessed through our websites and webcasts are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with (or furnish to) the SEC, and any references to our websites and webcasts are intended to be inactive textual references only.