eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) executives said the company ended 2025 with “incredible momentum,” pointing to fourth-quarter results that exceeded internal expectations and a year marked by accelerating gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth, higher revenue, and continued investment in product innovation.
Q4 performance and full-year results
CEO Jamie Iannone said global GMV grew nearly 6% in 2025 to approximately $80 billion, with U.S. GMV up nearly 10%. He highlighted broad-based strength across what the company described as its established strategic priorities: Focus Categories, consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and “recommerce” (pre-owned and refurbished goods). Iannone said recommerce represented over 40% of platform GMV in 2025 and that Focus Categories, C2C, and recommerce together comprised roughly two-thirds of the business, or more than $50 billion of “unique GMV,” growing about 10% and accelerating during the year.
Alford said trailing 12-month active buyers were roughly 135 million in Q4; excluding buyers from the recently acquired Tise, active buyers were over 134 million, up nearly 1% year-over-year organically. Enthusiast buyers were stable at about 16 million, while spend per enthusiast buyer increased to over $3,300 on a trailing 12-month basis.
Category drivers: Collectibles, parts, and fashion
Management pointed to collectibles as the largest contributor to Q4 GMV growth. Iannone cited strength in trading cards and contributions from off-platform marketplaces TCGplayer and Goldin, along with acceleration in bullion and collectible coins amid “unique demand for precious metals.” He said an AI-powered card scanning beta launched in November—trained on over 40 million card samples—has seen enthusiasts scan more than 15 million cards to identify and value assets.
Motors, Parts & Accessories (P&A) contributed over one point of overall marketplace GMV growth in Q4, Iannone said, citing a “repair-over-replace” trend and eBay’s inventory of more than 800 million live P&A listings globally. He also highlighted scaling automated fitment capabilities in the U.S., expansion of listings covered by “Guaranteed Fit,” and stable return rates even as eBay emphasized easier returns.
Fashion was also described as a leading contributor to Q4 growth, supported by luxury and pre-loved apparel. Iannone said fashion generated “well north of $10 billion” in GMV globally in 2025 and that U.S. fashion served as the second-largest contributor to U.S. GMV growth in Q4, with particular strength in C2C. He detailed a range of initiatives, including expanded AI-powered discovery, broader Authenticity Guarantee coverage (including optional authentication for lower average selling price items), partner-led activations, and the role of eBay Live in fashion categories.
Monetization: Advertising, take rate, and shipping programs
Alford said eBay’s Q4 take rate was 14%, up 60 basis points year-over-year, driven primarily by shipping, the U.K. buyer protection fee, and advertising revenue growth. She noted the company eliminated final value fees for U.K. C2C sellers in October 2024 and “progressively scaled” remonetization through 2025, completing efforts in Q4 via a buyer protection fee and a Managed Shipping mandate on eligible items.
Total advertising revenue in Q4 was $544 million, representing GMV penetration of nearly 2.6%. First-party ads on the eBay platform grew over 17% to $517 million, with Promoted Listings comprising nearly 1.2 billion of roughly 2.5 billion total listings; 4.8 million sellers adopted at least one Promoted Listings product during the quarter. Legacy third-party display ads declined 41% to $7 million, and off-platform advertising revenue was $21 million.
Non-GAAP gross margin was 72.1%, down nearly 80 basis points year-over-year. Alford said tax-related tailwinds and payment cost efficiencies were offset by Managed Shipping, traffic acquisition costs tied to promoted offsite ads, and Authenticity Guarantee program costs. Non-GAAP operating margin was 26.1%, with marketing efficiencies offset by higher product development expense and transaction losses tied primarily to newly launched shipping programs, which management expects to improve as programs mature.
Depop deal and 2026 outlook
eBay announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Depop from Etsy for approximately $1.2 billion in cash, subject to adjustments. Iannone said the transaction strengthens eBay’s C2C value proposition and expands demographic reach with Depop’s younger user base; he said Depop has about 7 million active buyers and 3 million active sellers, with most of its audience under 34. According to Iannone and Alford, Depop facilitated about $1 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2025, with nearly 60% year-over-year growth in the U.S.
Alford said eBay expects the deal to close in Q2 2026, pending customary conditions and regulatory approvals. Assuming a Q2 close, she said Depop is expected to contribute 1–2 percentage points to total FX-neutral GMV growth year-over-year in 2026, but represent a low single-digit headwind to eBay’s previously forecast 8%–10% non-GAAP operating income growth for the core marketplace, along with low single-digit dilution to non-GAAP EPS growth. She added that eBay expects the acquisition to become accretive to non-GAAP operating income in 2028 on a consolidated basis, including synergies.
For Q1 2026, eBay guided to GMV of $21.5 billion to $21.9 billion (10%–12% FX-neutral growth) and revenue of $3.0 billion to $3.05 billion (13%–15% FX-neutral growth). The company forecast non-GAAP operating income growth of 11%–16% and non-GAAP EPS of $1.53 to $1.59. For full-year 2026 (excluding Depop), Alford said eBay is planning for FX-neutral GMV growth similar to 2025, with revenue growth in line to slightly ahead of GMV and non-GAAP operating income growth of 8%–10%.
Executives also outlined factors expected to affect 2026 growth cadence, including tougher comparisons in Pokémon trading cards, moderation in bullion and collectible coins after Q1, lapping the U.S. Klarna partnership beginning in Q2, and lapping marketing efficiency gains from paid search dynamics starting in Q2.
On capital returns, Alford said eBay is targeting roughly $2 billion of share repurchases in 2026 and reiterated a plan to return 90%–100% of free cash flow through repurchases and dividends “in a normal year.” The board authorized an additional $2 billion for repurchases and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.31 per share for Q1, up $0.02 from 2025’s quarterly dividend.
About eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)
eBay Inc is a global e-commerce company that operates an online marketplace connecting individual consumers and businesses for the sale and purchase of new, used and collectible goods. Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and headquartered in San Jose, California, eBay grew from its early auction-style site into a diversified platform offering both auction-format listings and fixed-price “Buy It Now” transactions. The company completed an initial public offering in the late 1990s and has since evolved its platform and services to support a broad range of product categories and buyer preferences.
The company’s core business centers on its marketplace platform, which provides listing, search and transaction capabilities for millions of items across consumer goods, electronics, fashion, collectibles and more.
