At a glance
- Company
- eBayOnline marketplace
- Industry
- E-commerce and retail
- Where and when
- United States sellers, buyers in Spanish-speaking Latin America. 2014, published 2019.
- Who produced the figures
- Measured by researchersThe figures come from a study by university researchers, published in a peer-reviewed journal. eBay supplied the data. The working paper notes that at least one author disclosed a financial relationship relevant to the research.
What they did
In 2014 eBay introduced its own machine translation for buyers in Latin America. A buyer could type a search in Spanish. The system translated the search into English, found listings from US sellers, and showed their titles in Spanish.
Researchers used eBay’s sales data to compare trade before and after the change. They compared US exports to Spanish-speaking Latin American countries with US exports to other countries, where nothing had changed.
The numbers
- Exports up 10.9%. This is the figure in the published, peer-reviewed paper. It measures trade on the platform, not what eBay earned.
- An earlier draft gave more. The 2018 working paper put the rise at 17.5% to 20.9%, depending on the method. The published figure is the one to cite.
What the case shows
- A narrow AI feature moved sales. The gain came from removing one specific barrier: buyers could not read the listings. A shop with little foreign traffic has less to gain.
- It was measured properly. There was a comparison group, and the study passed peer review.
- The benefit went to customers and sellers, not to cost-cutting. Nothing in the study is about replacing staff.
What this says about the practices
Practices the company applied
- Start with one costly process, not a company-wide rollout eBay aimed machine translation at one barrier: buyers in Latin America could not read listings from US sellers. Do first · Effort: medium (weeks, a few people)
- Measure time saved per task against a baseline Sales were compared before and after the change, and against countries where nothing had changed. Do first · Effort: low (days, one person)