eBay has reported $4bn in revenue for Q4, 2012, and $14.1bn for the whole year – an increase of 21 per cent year-on-year, which was partially driven by the growth of its mobile business.

Over the course of 2012, 4.3m new users came to eBay through its suite of apps alone. Mobile purchases on eBay totalled $13bn for the whole year, an increase of more than 120 per cent year-on-year, while mobile payments handled by PayPal approached $14bn, up by more than 250 per cent.

Looking forward to 2013, eBay forecasts both of those numbers to exceed $20bn, with total revenues rising to $16-16.5bn, an increase of up to 17.3 per cent. 

“Mobile continues to rewrite the commerce playbook, and we continue to be a mobile commerce and payments leader,” said eBay president and CEO John Donahoe. “Web-enabled multichannel commerce is evolving quickly, and consumer shopping behavior is changing rapidly. Our focus is on being a global commerce leader in this new environment, connecting buyers and sellers everywhere, and being a preferred multichannel partner of choice for retailers and brands of all sizes.”

Going forward, eBay reckons it can double the size of its PayPal business through the rollout of in-store payment systems, driven by a partnership with paments technology company NCR. It has started signing up retailers, including Jamba Juice, to its system, enabling them to order and pay via their smartphone then collect their order without having to queue.