EBay Inc.’s payment unit, which includes PayPal Inc. and Bill Me Later, experienced a strong first quarter, eBay reported this afternoon.
For the first quarter ended March 31, the payments unit reported net revenue of $992 million, up 22.6% from $809 million during the same period last year.
EBay did not report the unit’s net income, and it did not break out Bill Me Later’s financials.
The company brought PayPal’s active account total to 97.7 million, a 15.9% increase from 84.3 million in the first quarter of 2010.
PayPal’s net total payments volume rose 28.6%, to $27.4 billion from $21.3 billion, with Bill Me Later increasing its payments volume by 42.1%, to $324 million from $228 million.
PayPal’s merchant services net payment volume was $17.2 billion, up 37.6% from $12.5 billion. The unit includes PayPal-accepting merchants, active PayPal accounts and eBay’s share of Mobile Express Checkout, an initiative that enables consumers to pay for purchases using their mobile phones. Mobile Express Checkout offers consumers the same payment option as the online version of PayPal.
As a company, eBay reported net revenue of $2.5 billion for the first quarter, up 13.6% from $2.2 billion a year earlier. The company generated net income of $476 million, up 19.6% from $398 million.
