eBay earned $377 million in the first quarter, up 52 percent from a year earlier, reports The New York Times. Though its auction service had disappointing results, the better-then-expected profits are attributed to the success of its newer businesses.

The faster-growing units include shopping.com, a price comparison site; some classified listing sites; Paypal, a service to let online merchants accept credit cards; and Skype, the online voice chat service.

Over all, eBay's Marketplaces unit, which includes auctions, shopping.com and several classified sites, posted revenue of $1.25 billion, up 23 percent. Skype, which earns money largely from fees to connect users to the telephone system, posted revenue of $79 million, up 123 percent.

In the first quarter, the number of auction listings on eBay's core site increased by only 2 percent to 588 million. But the total dollar value of merchandise sold in the auctions increased by 14 percent to $14.28 billion.

eBay's total revenue was $1.77 billion, up 27 percent.