NEW YORK ? An eBay executive at the Netbiscuits Partner Day 2010 said that his company?s mobile commerce business will eventually surpass its ecommerce revenue.

Funneled through its subsidiary PayPal, eBay?s mobile revenue was in excess of $600 million in 2009, and the company is well on its way to at least $1.5 billion in mobile revenue this year. Given such robust growth, eBay has made mobile an increasing priority in the belief that the sky is the limit for mobile commerce.

?For eBay, mobile commerce is the future, and our plan is to innovate and hit the gas pedal?we don?t see the steep growth trajectory of mobile commerce changing,? said Oliver Cockcroft, product manager at eBay, Palo Alto, CA. ?We went from three people on the eBay mobile team to 70 in the last year and a half.

?We?re driving as hard as we can to break through and become mcommerce leader,? he said. ?In the future, we will see our mobile commerce business surpass our ecommerce business, especially when you take tablets into account.?

That said, there are still plenty of challenges to overcome, even for a $1.5 billion mobile commerce giant.

The company realized that it needed to revolutionize what it had done in mobile, because its mobile properties had gotten a bit stale after four or five years with the same technology.

The company moved from a WAP site to a full mobile Web site and has rolled out applications for multiple platforms, including Android, iPhone and iPad.

The other key challenge is education.

?In general, normal consumers are very open to mobile commerce, whereas eBay consumers?we have a special group of people that use eBay,? Mr. Cockcroft said. ?It can be a challenge to get new technology into their hands, as they tend to be stuck in their ways.

?It?s a challenge communicating the products we offer?a large percentage of eBay users don?t even know we have a mobile presence,? he said. ?That said, our buyers and sellers need to be connected at every point?they have to keep track of what they?re buying what they?re selling, what auctions they?re following.

?Mobile gives them access to eBay while they?re out shopping, watching their kids play baseball and even during their commute?how do we provide a great product that quickly and easily gives them the information they require and lets them to interact with eBay and transact using their handsets??

Mr. Cockcroft said that thinking about the situational context of when and where people are accessing the mobile platforms is key.

When creating a mobile site or application, there is a fine balance between putting in too many features in and not including enough.

Like all companies, eBay wanted to provide the features that its users will need on the go while also make it a great user experience.

?We want to be able to create an experience that uses all of the new technologies available to provide the great eBay experience no matter where our users are,? Mr. Cockcroft said. ?We want to give them a way to scan bar codes, interact with their friends and transact via eBay.?

The company recently purchased RedLaser and integrated it into its application so that they support QR codes.

Netbiscuits is helping eBay build push notification into its applications.

The company also partners with GetJar, Zebra Crossing and Google to enhance its mobile properties.

Its application development strategy is heavily focused on iPhone and Android, but it realizes the importance of the mobile Web to reach other mobile users.

?We have a lot of iphone users obviously because we?ve put a lot of press behind it, a lot of revenue through our iPhone apps, but it is something like 25 percent iPhone users on the mobile site,? Mr. Cockcroft said. ?A lot of our Apple device users actually use both the app and the mobile site.

?You also have to make sure people who don?t necessarily have a smartphone can access their eBay accounts via the mobile Web,? he said. ?If not, you?re losing 50 percent of your traffic.?

The company has an application install base of 13 million on the iPhone, and 5 million of those consumers are transacting on the mobile Web site as well, according to eBay.

Another advantage of having a mobile Web presence is discoverability.

Next week, eBay is rolling out a global redirect, which will take anyone searching eBay on their handsets to the corresponding mobile Web set that is optimized for their particular device.

Whether on the mobile Web or within an application, it is incredibly important to make the mobile payment checkout process user-friendly to reduce friction in the last-mile conversion.

?If you find an eBay search result through Google or a mobile ad link, we don?t want to send them to the PC Web site or a generic Web link, because the payment functionality isn?t there,? Mr. Cockcroft said. ?Using Google on their handset to get to our mobile site, they can find the item they want, transact via PayPal and they?re done.

?A problem I?ve seen on a lot of mobile sites and apps, the user drops off quickly when they can?t quickly and easily buy a product,? he said. ?Even if the information is there, it doesn?t matter if the mobile purchase process isn?t easy.?

Mr. Cockcroft at Netbiscuits Partner Day 2010:

Netbiscuits' CEO Michael Neidhoefer:

Ran Farmer, managing director of North America at Netbiscuits:

Final Take

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