Lone market fight awaits EBay CEO

[SAN FRANCISCO] EBay Inc's separation from PayPal casts the online marketplace into an environment where the stakes are much higher as Amazon.com and Alibaba Group Holding battle for global supremacy.

Devin Wenig, 47, will continue to lead EBay's marketplace business as chief executive officer after the split, inheriting an operation with roots stretching back to the early days of the Internet.

While EBay pioneered Web auctions and later became a virtual storefront for retailers, it hasn't kept pace with the sales growth at bigger e-commerce companies. The company has also kept the basic design of its website unchanged over the years - partly due to the influence of its community of buyers and sellers - and only started to make more aggressive changes since Mr Wenig's arrival. EBay also had to apologise to users and ask them to change their passwords in May after a security breach.