Ebay and Facebook will announce closer ties

ONLINE AUCTION FIRM Ebay will announce a closer relationship with Facebook at the X.commerce developers conference in San Francisco this week.

Ebay and Facebook have an existing partnership that allows Facebook users to buy self-serve ads and Facebook Credits using Paypal, Ebay's electronic payments system.

The X.commerce conference in San Francisco on 12-14 October marks the launch of Ebay's new X.commerce division. It will target e-commerce software developers that Ebay is encouraging to create applications for its e-commerce platforms.

People "familiar with the matter" told Reuters that the new partnership would focus on the e-commerce area.

Katie Mitic, head of Platform and Mobile Marketing at Facebook joined Ebay's board of directors in September, leading to speculation that the two companies were working on new partnerships.

A Reuters source also said Ebay will launch a new online identification service for shoppers called Paypal Access this week, allowing users to shop using just their Paypal email credentials and password. µ