Ebay buys StumbleUpon for $75 million

Ebay may have found a way to enter into the online search wars. This week, the online auctioneer purchased StumbleUpon, a surfing and content finding web tool.

by Kristina Knight

The purchase price is reportedly $75 million. Adding StumbleUpon to other Ebay offerings like PayPal and Skype could greatly impact how surfers use these platforms. From 2006 to 2007, StumbleUpon showed 150% YoY growth.

The platform engages users by allowing them to recommend online content. The more recommendations, the higher a website's content will rank in the listings. Users can also rank ads on the websites, giving advertisers an idea of how their ads appeal to the masses. The site boasts nearly 2.3 million users and 5 million daily recommendations.

"We think that joining eBay is the right thing to do to help us to grow StumbleUpon to its full potential. We think eBay is a great fit for us because eBay and StumbleUpon share similar approaches – we’re both driven by our community of users, and we are both dedicated to connecting people," mentioned the StumbleUpon blog.

Google and Yahoo have long dominated the search share in the United States. Google, though, has a commanding lead with roughly 49% of the search share. Yahoo boasts about 26%, but has been making gains since the release of the new Panama platform.