X.commerce：eBay/PayPalのオープンプラットフォーム事業

米eBay Inc.は、電子商取引（Eコマース：EC）の大手企業である。プログラマーOmidyar氏の作った競売用サイト「Auction Web」を1996年に法人化したのが始まりで、競売サイトや電子決済PayPalにより、誰でもオンラインでモノを売る、買う、支払うことを可能にした。この売り手と買い手をつなぐ事業に加えて、2011年、eBayは販売者と開発者をつなぐプラットフォーム事業を立ち上げた。本稿では、現在のeBayの4つの事業―Marketplace、PayPal、GSI、X.commerce―を立ち上げてきた経緯を概観し、eBayのビジネス戦略を考察する。

eBay Inc. is one of the world's leading E-commerce companies. Founded by software engineer Pierre Omidyar, the company started as an auction site "Auction Web", before being incorporated as eBay Inc. in 1996. The company's auction website enables anyone to purchase and sell goods over the Internet, and pay for them online using the e-payment system "PayPal". In addition to this primary business of connecting shoppers and sellers, eBay has also established a new platform business, one that connects merchants and developers.
This report outlines eBay's four business divisions--Marketplace, PayPal, GSI, and X.commerce. The fourth division X.commerce offers an 'à la carte' selection of E-commerce tools including checkout, cart, inventory control, and tax management. It also offers various application program interfaces (API) including many of eBay's recent acquisitions such as Magento, Red Laser, Milo and WHERE. The company expects developers to use the possibilities created by X.commerce to build more useful apps.
On October 12, 2011, merchants, developers and eBay partners gathered at the X.commerce developer conference "Innovate 2011" to hear eBay announce the launch of 'PayPal Access', and a partnership with Facebook to add 'Want' and 'Own' buttons to E-commerce sites. X.commerce aims to establish itself as a new E-commerce open platform, which combines various online and offline venture technologies. The key to the platform's success is innovation. To take advantage of the venture's speed and quickness, eBay has allowed the venture companies it has acquired to operate as separate business units within the larger organization.