eBay builds internet commerce presence

Still driving home the importance of m-commerce, online giant eBay has agreed to acquire the 51 per cent stake in e-commerce platform Magento that it does not already own. Ebay snapped up 49 per cent of Magento last year in a bid to increase its offerings to online merchants.

Ebay is building a global, open commerce platform that leverages the worldwide developer community and Magento will be at the core of this open commerce platform, called “X.Commerce.”

Research released by eBay’s UK operation recently claims that m-commerce could deliver a £4.5bn boost to Britain’s economy by 2016 and a further £13bn by 2021, if nurtured correctly. The analysis was carried out by retail research firm Verdict, on 1,500 UK consumers in May, concluding that m-commerce in the UK is to be worth £19bn by 2021 as consumers become more comfortable with shopping on their handsets.

All eyes are now on the next battleground, which will see online giants like eBay and Google, face off against operators in the mobile wallet space.