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eBay goes mobile
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May 22, 2000: 5:46 p.m. ET
New eBay service makes auction site accessible from wireless devices
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Online auctioneer eBay launched on Monday its eBay Anywhere service, which makes eBay accessible from any Internet-enabled mobile device, including phones and pagers.
 The service, which is immediately available, aims mostly to allow current eBay users to keep up with the status of ongoing auctions without using a PC. However, Todd Madeiros, the director of eBay Anywhere, acknowledged that marketing the eBay name is a long-term goal.
"EBay Anywhere's objective is to make sure that, when somebody gets a new device or service, we can introduce them to eBay," Madeiros said.
"If you buy a Sprint PCS phone today, you'll see eBay."
Sprint PCS (PCS: Research, Estimates), AT&T (T: Research, Estimates) Digital PocketNet Service, OmniSky Corp., Phone.com (PHCM: Research, Estimates) and OracleMobile are providers that have already signed up to participate in the new service, which is eBay's latest foray into wireless. In July 1999, the San Jose, Calif.-based company launched "eBay a-go-go," which allowed eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates) users to get bid notifications on their pagers, and in October 1999 the company started a two-way interface with 3Com's (COMS: Research, Estimates) Palm VII. Madeiros said both ventures successfully increased eBay's traffic.
Madeiros did not give any specific projections about the number of users eBay expects for its new service. "A lot of the outcome depends on how fast the wireless world explodes," he said. "As carriers get more users on their networks, more people will be exposed to eBay and will come to eBay."
At the close of trading Friday, eBay stock was up 18 to 136-3/16. 
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