eBay Inc. has published the financial results for the fourth quarter – again reporting negative revenue growth – and fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2022.
“In 2022, we made significant progress on our multi-year strategic journey,” said Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay. “Our focus category playbook continues to drive the underlying growth of our business, and the investments we have made in our core technology enable us to innovate faster on behalf of our customers. We have a talented team, a strong strategic vision and a continued focus on operational excellence that will create long-term value for our shareholders in the years ahead.”
While the company claims to have shown continued resilience of the marketplace amid economic uncertainty, the numbers were mixed, yet „better than expected.“
Net revenue at San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. fell four percent year-over-year to $2.51 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 (-2% in constant currency). In the previous quarter, at $2.38 billion, net revenue was down 5 percent year-over-year (Q2 2022: -9%). Advertising revenue, driven by Promoted Listings, increased 19 percent to $276 million in the quarter. Down 12 percent year-over-year, eBay’s Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) fell to $18.2 billion in the same period (previous quarter: $17.715bn). eBay also reported operating income of $565 million in the period (previous quarter: $568m, previous year: $688m). The e-commerce platform’s operating margin was thus 22.5 percent (previous quarter: 23.9%, previous year: 26.3%). The net income fell to $672 million in the same period (previous year: $1.969bn) or $1.23 per share (previous year: up $3.25). The company generated operating cash flow of $684 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 (previous year: $293m), meanwhile free cash flow was $533 million (previous quarter: $633m, previous year: $372m).
At the end of the last quarter, eBay still counted 134 million active buyers (previous quarter: 135 million), down 9 percent on the same period last year. In the run-up, eBay already warned of the end of the pandemic boom. Thus, the number of buyers declined sequentially again. Meanwhile, eBay no longer provided information on the number of active sellers. In Q4 of 2021, the marketplace still counted around 17 million active sellers (Q3 2021: 19 million), a decline of 8 percent year-on-year.
On a side note, eseller365.com called the published numbers a “confusing mess.” To avoid additional confusion, we would like to limit ourselves to an uncommented listing of the highlights of the company’s full financial year (FY 2022):
Full Year Financial Highlights
- Revenue was $9.8 billion, down 6 percent on an as-reported basis and down 4 percent on an FX-Neutral basis
- GMV was $73.9 billion, down 15 percent on an as-reported basis and down 11 percent on an FX-Neutral basis
- GAAP net loss from continuing operations was $1.3 billion, primarily driven by the change in fair value of our equity investments
- Non-GAAP net income from continuing operations was $2.3 billion, or $4.11 per diluted share
- GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin was 24.0 percent and 30.0 percent, respectively
- Generated $2.6 billion of operating cash flow and $2.2 billion of free cash flow from continuing operations
- Sold shares in Adevinta, Adyen and KakaoBank for cash proceeds of $1.1 billion in the aggregate
- Returned over $3.6 billion to shareholders, including $3.1 billion of share repurchases and $489 million paid in cash dividends
