eBay VP Steve Yankovich: En Route To $4B In Gross Mobile Sales (TCTV)

Last week, I moderated a panel at the Planet Of The Apps conference in London, which included Steve Yankovich, head of eBay’s mobile business operations and development.

I caught up with Steve after our panel to talk more about eBay’s strides in introducing mobile commerce to a mainstream audience.

Yankovich tells me eBay is on its way to process around $4 billion in mobile sales (= gross merchandise volume, not revenue) in 2011, double the number it logged last year.

The company’s mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7 and whatnot have been downloaded over 50 million times, and its Marketplace app alone has seen about 20 million downloads.

Furthermore, three purchases are made through eBay’s mobile applications every second.

Approximately half of eBay’s mobile purchases came from outside the United States (mostly from English-speaking countries like the UK, Australia and Canada but also Germany and France).

More stats (for September 2011, as relayed by eBay PR):

– More than 117,000 car parts and accessories are sold through eBay’s core iPhone apps every week
– 2,600 vehicles are purchased through eBay’s core iPhone apps every week
– 13 pieces of clothing, shoes or accessories are sold every minute through eBay’s mobile apps

And it’s not just buyers using eBay’s apps, Yankovich points out. In fact, as of September 2011, eBay sellers are listing over 700,000 new items through their mobile applications on a weekly basis.

You can see the video interview below – apologies for having to switch cameras in the middle of it.

Also read: Connecting The Dots On eBay’s Local Shopping Strategy