eBay AdContext: eBay launches their own keyword advertising system

Ecommerce giants eBay are due to launch their Google Adwords competitor named eBay AdContext. However, it would be promoting their own services on websites as the company plans to lower its reliance on Google’s online advertising system.

This new product from eBay would be for eBay sellers to promote auctions on other Web sites. These plans were revealed in the media by eBay’s chief strategy officer Michael van Swaaij.

They would be allowing their Web site affiliates to run contextual ads for eBay auctions. Advertisers would get a cut of the resulting eBay sales. Users would be able to run snippets of code on their website to automatically showcase items for sale on eBay’s site. Swaaij said: “We want to increase the number of times buyers come to particular sites. It is a way for Web sites to get an additional monetization stream.”

This is one of the many ways eBay is encouraging developers to build eBay functions into independent Web sites.

eBay is one of the biggest advertisers on Google and just recently signed on a deal with Yahoo. Google is being seen as a potential eBay rival as they are expanding their services including Google Base to rival the services provided by eBay. This has led to the ecommerce giant considering alternatives to promote their services on the web.