PayPal and eBay Parting Ways

[Image]( [View this email in your browser.]( Hey {NAME} PayPal and eBay have announced another milestone in the ending of their partnership this week. Since 2015, PayPal has been strategically extricating itself from eBay and it has now been announced that eBay will be using a new default payment processor, [Adyen](, over PayPal. From a user perspective, the main benefit of Adyen on eBay is that it allows users to stay on eBay's website while checking out, unlike PayPal, which redirects the user. This announcement comes after [PayPal's Q4'17 earnings report]( showed an increase in income to $620 million, up from $390 million a year earlier, but a rather underwhelming outlook for the first quarter of the new year. PayPal has made several strategic shifts in line with their divergence from eBay in the last several years, as they have prioritized the [acquisition of small companies]( like Swift Financial and moved into B2C functions like facilitating payments between family and friends, as well as strategic partnerships with big names like [Apple](, [Google]( and [Mastercard](. In digital news this week, Google has announced that they are building a team of engineers devoted to optimizing the Internet's WordPress ecosystem for speed. WordPress boasts a 59% CMS market share, which is approximately one third of all web content published and 29% of all websites on the Internet. The search engine's recent partnership with the content management platform comes as part of Google's attempt to build a "healthy, flourishing and vibrant web." What does this mean? Primarily, an update to SEO guidelines. Starting July 2018, Google will factor in a website's mobile loading speed to mobile SERP rankings, and will soon roll out its larger mobile speed initiative, which will mean mobile loading speeds [will affect a website's overall indexing and ranking]( in traditional search results. Website businesses will want to ensure that they optimize their site load speed for mobile to ensure that their SERP positioning isn't demoted. For more details, read about how to prepare for mobile-first rankings [here](. In entrepreneurial news, Founder Thomas Smale was recently featured on DigitalCommerce360 in ["Three Ways to Increase the Value of Your E-Commerce Business"](, where he discusses three key practical improvements e-commerce owners can make to increase the value of their business. In the article, he also shares the unique metrics we consider when arriving at a [valuation for an e-commerce business](, as well as insight into the practices for e-commerce store owners to increase the value of their businesses. New in SaaS business listings this week we have a [$1.1M B2B SaaS business in the Web Design and Productivity Niche](, with rapid revenue growth reaching a c.78% CAGR for the 2014 to 2017 period, diversified earnings across two main products (both with dozens of 5-star reviews), an authoritative brand with a leadership position in a growing niche, hundreds of thousands of users to date and high, stable margins creating a scalable business model. New in content business listings this week we have a [$344K direct advertising business in the photography niche](, with website rankings for c.8,000 keywords, strong and stable traffic with over 750K sessions driving 1.6 million page views in the last 12 months, years of operational history resulting in an authoritative and well-known brand and low owner involvement with a VA prepared to transfer with the business. If you are interested in either of the above businesses, follow the links to request a Prospectus. In events news this week, Thomas had a great time attending the expert talks at SaaStr, where he [hosted a get-together]( for valued clients and attendees. Thank you to everyone who came out and networked with our group of SaaS insiders! Coming up in events: tickets for LTVConf are now on sale! [Early bird prices]( are available for the next ten days and run through February 19, after which they triple in price. They are selling out quickly, so be sure to book your spot for this expert-packed London conference at The Grange St. Paul's on May 10-11 by clicking [here](. E-commerce owners: have you figured out the secret to customer targeting using personalization? No? Not to worry--that's what our expert panel is for! Our February Boston E-Commerce Meetup is coming up on Wednesday the 21 from 6-8pm at WeWork South Station, where we will have a panel of experts discussing how to use data and personalize e-commerce marketing to target specific prospective clients and leads, with a message that speaks directly to them. Click [here]( to RSVP to the event. If you're curious about the event but were not able to attend the last one, check out the official panel video from January's meetup [here](. Continue reading below for more on Google's update to SEO ranking considerations and PayPal's increasingly definitive split from eBay.  [Image]( Deal Highlights New: [Software - B2B Web Design & Productivity - $27K gross/mo]( - Rapid revenue growth, reaching a 78% CAGR for the period 2014 to 2017 - Diversified earnings across two main products, each boasting dozens of 5-star reviews - Hundreds of thousands of downloads to-date - Authoritative brand with a leadership position in a growing niche - High and stable margins creating a scalable business model Yearly net profit: $293,000 Asking price: $1,085,000 [Direct Advertising - Photography - $11K gross/mo]( - Years of operational history resulting in an authoritative and well-known brand - Rapid revenue growth reaching a c.29% CAGR for the period 2014 to 2017 - Strong and stable traffic with over 750,000 sessions driving 1.6 million page views in the last 12 months - Website ranks for 8,000 keywords - Low owner involvement with a VA willing to stay on post-sale Yearly net profit: $104,000 Asking price: $344,000 Sold: [Display Advertising - Lifestyle - $2.3K gross/mo]( In the News... Google Sets Sights on Improving WordPress Ecosystem Google has recently announced that it is [dedicating an engineering team]( to ramp up development of the Internet’s WordPress “ecosystem.” WordPress is one of, if not the, largest open-source content management system, with a CMS market share approaching 58% (or 29% of all websites) and an estimated 1/3 of all web content being published through them. Google’s recent partnership with the content management behemoth is part of their initiative to ensure that certain practices get adopted on the web to ensure that it’s a “healthy, flourishing and vibrant web.” Their investment has centered mostly around the SEO community’s adoption of technologies and practices to that end. For instance, recently, Google announced that mobile page load speed would be a factor taken into consideration for SEO rankings. Data points to most searches being conducted on mobile devices, and when pages load poorly, this creates a negative user experience. Google is trying to regulate this by showing faster-loading sites more highly on SERPs. More specifically, Google uses the mobile version of a website to determine site rankings, meaning no matter how optimized the desktop version of your site, if the mobile version falls short of expectations, its ranking will nonetheless be affected. In addition, their speed update means that mobile page speed will affect ranking in mobile search results. The growing team at Google will be geared towards improving the performance of the WordPress platform and bringing its ecosystem up to current web experience standards as fast as possible. PayPal and eBay Parting Ways eBay has announced this week that it will opt for [Dutch payments processor Adyen over PaylPal]( as a default payment processor on the site. The shift means that customers will be able to process payments directly on eBay’s site when checking out, rather than PayPal’s method of redirecting the user. According to PayPal, shoppers on eBay will be able to select PayPal as a payment option until July of 2023. Recent earnings reports showed PayPal beating Wall Street estimates, but carried a rather bleak outlook for the first quarter, leading to shares initially dropping 5% following the news of the quarterly results. This schism is not out of the blue, however, as PayPal had been removing itself slowly from eBay since 2015 to shift from mostly processing payments for the parent company, to processing payments for other large companies and their customers, as well as for transactions between individuals. Analysts predicted that revenues would be $15.16 billion for 2018, and PayPal’s estimates fall somewhere between $15 and $15.25 billion. Their emphasis on partnering with major companies like Google, Apple, Mastercard, Visa and JPMorgan Chase, as well as some strategic acquisitions, have led to growth in both payment volume and users. Payment volume processed is up 32% from one year ago, to $131 billion, along with 8.7 million active users added.  Don't forget to check back next week for more industry updates and new listings. Until next week! The FE International Team  To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add info@feinternational.com to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](. Our postal address: FE International | 112 Water Street | Boston, MA 02109