TCGPlayer & Qoo10 Could See Monetization Push As eBay Introduces New Ad Metric To Quarterly Reports
As eBay sees slowing Promoted Listings ad adoption rates on main marketplace, a new metric included in quarterly reports foreshadows potential monetization push for subsidiaries TCGPlayer and Qoo10.
eBay's recent Q1 2025 earnings presentation included a small but interesting change to how the company reports ad revenue, adding a new metric for "Off-Platform Ads."
The note at the bottom of that slide says:
In Q1'25 we began reporting off-platform ads revenue as part of total ads revenue. Prior periods have not been recast, and we are including the baseline in the chart above to illustrate total ads revenue and the associated growth rates for all periods."1P = First-party advertising revenue, including Promoted Listings products and first-party display advertisements;3P = Third-party advertising revenue;Off-Platform = Advertising revenue from eBay’s off-platform businesses
Many sellers would likely assume Off-Platform might refer to eBay's Offsite Ads program, however the reference to "off-platform businesses" doesn't exactly fit that definition.
CFO Steve Priest provided more detail on the earnings call about what this new metric will actually be measuring, saying it represents advertising revenue from the company's other businesses outside of the main eBay platform, such as trading card subsidiary TCGPlayer and their Qoo10 marketplace in Japan.
In Q1, we included ad revenue generated by off-platform marketplaces like Qoo10 and TCGPlayer in our total reported advertising revenue for the first time. We've included details on the prior year baseline for comparability.
eBay has been increasingly hitting a wall with ad adoption on the main platform, with some categories already at 70%+ penetration
Liz Morton
And we can see from that slide that first party ad revenue (all of the various seller-paid Promoted Listings ad options eBay offers) fell from $434M in Q4 2024 to $418M in Q1 2025.
That may indicate changes eBay made in Q4 to ratchet up minimum rates for Promoted Listings General Dynamic and Priority Cost Per Click ads have slowed adoption & caused sellers to pull back as ads eat further into their profit margins.
Liz Morton
There's an old business adage that says "you can't manage what you don't measure" and the fact that eBay has started including this information now for "comparability" likely means they have plans already in the works for TCGPlayer and Qoo10 to show "meaningful revenue growth" on that chart in coming quarters.
Whether those ad initiatives will be 1st party (seller paid) or 3rd party - or a mix - remains to be seen, but if they stick with the same playbook they've used for the main eBay site, it's likely the emphasis will be on 1st party.
eBay's career's page shows they are currently looking to hire a Head of Seller Revenue Operations for TCGPlayer who will "lead and develop a team of Revenue Operations associates responsible for delivering on seller growth and success goals for TCGplayer."
As Head of Seller Revenue Operations, you will join the Seller Growth & Success team who are responsible for supporting sales, revenue, and seller enablement growth at TCGplayer from top of funnel lead generation all the way through to upsells and retention of existing sellers.
These responsibilities focus primarily on TCGplayer.com sellers on our core marketplace platform, and ROCA robotics business.
The Head of Seller Revenue Operations will collaborate across marketing, sales, account management, and customer support teams to drive wins, insights and analysis that can help us identify growth opportunities in the market and efficiencies in day-to-day operations.
Reporting into the VP of Seller Growth & Success, the right candidate is someone who is data centric, process oriented, systems savvy, and entrepreneurial.
Success in this role requires the ability to maintain and implement a best in class sales techstack, while also leveraging insights from them to improve business operations. This role will also be responsible for managing a team of direct reports who will work in tandem with you to drive outcomes on a weekly basis.
While the job posting doesn't mention ads specifically, developing and growing onsite advertising revenue streams would absolutely fit within the purview of that role.
And looking at open positions for Qoo10 shows eBay may be more likely to lean into affiliate marketing and 3rd party brand partnerships/sponsorships for that marketplace, particularly in their popular beauty products categories.
Bottom line: if you're a buyer or seller on Qoo10 or TCGPlayer - get ready to see more ads plastered across the user experience!
