Live from the Management-Day at the International PHP Conference 2006. Dr. Alexander Schwinn, eBay GmbH Germany and Manager Developers Program, is reporting some quite interesting numbers about the usage of eBay WebServices:

• more than 40,000 registered eBay developers world-wide
• more than 1,200 productive applications in DE
• 2002: less than 1 billion eBay WebService calls
• Q1/2006: 9,4 billion eBay WebService calls
• more than 53% of all ebay.com offers will be added through API applications
• more than 120 WebService methods available

An overview of eBay applications is available at applikationsverzeichnis.ebay.de. The PHP SDK is available at ebatns.codebase.ebay.com

He explained some innovative applications that have been developed with the eBay API and showcased
a self-developed plugin for Skype (written in PHP) that integrates current eBay auctions as a new tab
into Skype. Another application eBay Germany has developed for eBay France an application with PHP where you are able to create your own eBay desktop (with some nice Drag&Drop through AJAX) similar to Pageflakes.

There are also eBay clients available inside the Microsoft Media Center Edition where you can bid for eBay offers
through Media Center. Pretty cool.

To be continued…