July 21 (Bloomberg) -- EBay Inc., the world's No. 1 Internet auctioneer, said second-quarter earnings more than doubled to $190.4 million as a record number of users bought and sold merchandise online and utilized its electronic-payment system.

Net income jumped to 28 cents a share, from $91.9 million, or 14 cents, a year earlier, the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement. Sales increased 52 percent to $773.4 million. EBay gave profit forecasts that fell short of analysts' expectations.

EBay added 9.2 million users to sites in the U.S. and 22 countries, helping boost the value of items sold through them to $8 billion. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, 47, is pursuing a strategy of attracting more visitors to sites, getting them to buy or sell and increasing their usage. PayPal's revenue rose as the number of accounts increased by 62 percent.

``EBay continues to do well,'' said Paul Cook, director of technology investing at Munder Capital Management, which held 1.5 million EBay shares at the end of March. A February increase in listing fees shows ``they've got pricing power.''

EBay, which gets revenue from fees and services, said international sales soared 77 percent to $277.4 million, faster than its other businesses.

Sales in the U.S., EBay's largest and oldest market, increased by a third to $334.5 million, while rising adoption of PayPal's led to a 59 percent jump to $161.5 million in revenue from the e-mail payment transfer business.

Shares of EBay fell $3.35 to $76.60 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They've risen 19 percent this year. Results were released after the close of regular U.S. markets.

Global Business

Profit excluding stock-based pay costs, amortization and certain other costs, was $197.7 million, or 29 cents a share. On that basis, which doesn't conform to generally accepted accounting principles, the company was expected to earn 27 cents, the average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Whitman is striving to build EBay into a global marketplace where people can buy or sell items ranging from collectible Barbie dolls to printing presses while using PayPal accounts to remit payments. To that end, last month EBay announced it would expand into India with the purchase of Baazee.com for about $50 million.

International growth helped boost the number of listings on the site to 332.3 million during the quarter, or 48 percent more than the 225 million a year earlier.

EBay forecast profit excluding certain costs this quarter of as much as 25 cents a share and for the full year of $1.17. It raised revenue the forecast by $5 million to $770 million for this quarter and $3.19 billion for the year.

Outlook

Those profit projections are lower than analysts estimates for 27 cents a share this quarter and $1.19 for the year. EBay said it has raised the 2004 forecasts twice since putting out its initial expectations last year. The profit outlook has been increased by 19 cents and revenue by $285 million, said EBay Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta in an interview.

``If anything, we have a very strong belief in the future of this company as we look out into the rest of the year,'' Dutta said.

During the quarter, AuctionDrop Inc., a company that takes items on consignment for sale on EBay, reached an agreement with United Parcel Service Inc. to have 3,400 stores to act as drop- off points for the service.

Circuit City Stores Inc., the No. 2 U.S. electronics chain, also began testing eight ``drop-off'' stores where people who don't know or want to take the time to learn how to sell on EBay can drop off items for sale on the auction site.

In March, the company started promoting itself as a place where businesses can buy supplies and equipment and began offering financing programs for buyers from General Electric Co.'s business credit unit.

Whitman also has been trying to expand sales categories and make selling easier in the U.S. Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. electronics chain, began selling new and returned products on EBay in March.

EBay's PayPal unit also began offering a local site in Germany, part of its plan to open wherever EBay has an auction business.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Wiles in San Francisco grwiles@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 21, 2004 16:21 EDT