Half.com® iPhone® App Helps Students Find More Deals for Back-to-School

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Half.com, an eBay company and a leader in media ecommerce, announced today the availability of a new iPhone application and Buying Wizard that helps students comparison shop and secure great deals on textbooks during the Back-to-School shopping season.

“With buyers looking to save more this Back-to-School shopping season, the Half.com iPhone app gives students access to the millions of great deals on Half.com virtually anytime, anywhere”

The Half.com iPhone app is the first eBay buying application to integrate barcode scanning technology. The app allows users to scan the barcodes on items to find the best deals on textbooks, DVDs, popular novels, video games and more – often at up to 50 percent or more off the normal retail price. Back-to-School is one of the busiest shopping times of the year for Half.com. The majority of items sold on Half.com are textbooks, with a spike in July through September for Back-to-School. More information and a demo video of the Half.com iPhone app can be found at: www.ebay.com/mobile.

“With buyers looking to save more this Back-to-School shopping season, the Half.com iPhone app gives students access to the millions of great deals on Half.com virtually anytime, anywhere,” said Steve Yankovich, vice-president of mobile platform, eBay. “eBay has integrated barcode scanning technology into the app making it easier than ever before for students to comparison shop in their campus bookstores and find the best deals on textbooks, novels and more. And, the app’s Speedy Checkout reduces the friction of commerce, allowing users to buy with only a few quick clicks.”

Announcement Highlights/Key Facts:

The app provides Half.com buyers access to over 80 million active listings from more than 700,000 sellers.
Other features on the app to help users find the best deals on media items include:
Popular item search by category available on the home screen – see what others are buying.
Speedy Checkout has payment and shipping information saved to complete the transaction quickly. Add a gift card or coupon code when checking out to save even more.
Social Media Sharing function enables users to share favorite deals via Facebook, Twitter, and email.
The Half.com iPhone app is free and available in Apple’s iTunes® Store.
The Buying Wizard (Beta) is an easy-to-use tool that helps Half.com users find deals quickly. Based on the user’s criteria for item condition and seller feedback, the Wizard identifies the lowest cost items and shipping discounts (if applicable) to help shoppers get the best deals on Half.com.
With three easy steps the Buying Wizard will match users with the best deal:
Add Products – Users select the minimum criteria for item condition and seller feedback.
Find Deal Button – Buying Wizard will display the best deal for you, based on the criteria you selected.
Add to Cart – Move the items from Buying Wizard into your shopping cart to purchase.

About Half.com

Half.com, an eBay company, offers users a fixed price online marketplace where they can buy both new and used textbooks, books, music, movies and video games at discounted prices. With one of the largest inventories on the web, Half.com offers their buyers the ability to find great bargains online, quickly and easily. Since 1999, Half.com has been a premier destination for students to get great deals on textbooks.

About eBay Inc. Mobile

eBay launched its first application for the iPhone in July 2008 and has since become a leader in mobile commerce. Its core iPhone application, which is available free via iTunes in eight languages and 190 countries, has been downloaded over 10 million times and allows users to fully browse and buy from the 200+ million listings on eBay without leaving the application. The eBay for iPad application is a top free Lifestyle app for the iPad™ in the iTunes Store and delivers a dramatically different, visually compelling shopping experience to browse and purchase the vast selection of products available on eBay. eBay’s suite of mobile apps, including Selling, Classifieds, StubHub, and eBay applications for Android™ and BlackBerry®, make selling and buying possible virtually anywhere, anytime. In 2009, eBay’s mobile gross merchandise volume (“GMV”) was over $600 million. eBay expects to generate $1.5 billion in GMV through mobile commerce in 2010. For more information, visit www.ebay.com/mobile.

eBay Inc.'s PayPal™ division has been delivering mobile payments since 2005 and expects more than five million users to be regularly using PayPal on mobile devices by the end of 2010, transacting more than $500 million. PayPal has a mobile app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones as well as SMS and WAP-based payments solutions. The company also offers developers and merchants the ability to easily integrate mobile payments into their applications or online stores via its mobile Payments Library and Mobile Express Checkout products. For more information, visit www.paypal.com/mobile.

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Forward Looking Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of eBay’s businesses that are based on its current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future growth in mobile commerce. Those statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, consumer acceptance and use of eBay’s mobile applications.

More information about potential factors which could affect our business and results is included in eBay's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, its Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other periodic filings. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to eBay on the date hereof, and eBay assumes no obligation to update such statements.