Ebay expanding e-commerce services

• EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) is launching what it calls a ProStores initiative to sell business services to eBay merchants who want to graduate to sell on their own Web sites, as well as to other small-to-medium sized businesses operating Web storefronts, Meg Whitman, president and chief executive officer of the online auction business, said in a keynote address at the eBay Live annual convention going on this weekend.
• "We want to help you expand your business as you see fit and grow in every direction," Ms.
• Whitman said to a nearly full house at the HP Pavilion in the company's hometown of San Jose.
• In an event that was part rock concert, part Super Bowl and part revival meeting, she told a cheering crowd of the milestones eBay has reached since it began over Labor Day weekend in 1995.
• Today, 147 million people buy or sell merchandise through eBay, she said.
• If the eBay community were a country, it would be the 7th largest country in the world.
• At any one time, about 50 million items are posted on eBay's Web site and 5 million new items are added each day.
• EBay's PayPal subsidiary, a company that facilitates online payments, which eBay acquired in 2000, comes in just behind American Express (NYSE: AXP) but ahead of Discover in the number of active accounts.
• Three-fourths of all eBay transactions are completed using PayPal.
• ProStores will offer a variety of services to budding online merchants, including online shopping carts, integration with shipping services, and supply chain management services for bigger firms.
• Fees will range between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent of the selling price, depending on the number of services used.
• More than 11,000 people have registered to attend eBay Live events, including workshops on selling techniques, through Saturday in San Jose and Santa Clara.