eBay Launches Microfinance Site: MicroPlace

There?s Kiva. There?s Accion International. There?s Opportunity International. And now there?s MicroPlace, an eBay company.

What are they? Microfinance groups and organizations, spread across the globe, whose purpose it is to offer entrepreneurs and small businesses in places where poverty disables such people and their enterprises of the possibility of growth the ability to expand, invest in more materials, and get hold of new tools in order to increase production, and, generally speaking, better their communities as a result. Sounds like a great thing, yes? Well, that?s because it is a great thing.

Online auction giant eBay is now pushing to use its worldwide recognition to join the fold and make a significant impact itself. Last year, the company acquired a small and virtually unknown entity piloted a Ms. Tracey Pettengill Turner, and after months of development and preparation, both founder (Turner) and investor (eBay) have today announced the official opening of their microfinance effort, which they?re calling MicroPlace.

Like Kiva.org and other such institutions, MicroPlace allows users to provide small loans to particular people or businesses of one?s choosing, and through the combined efforts of many lenders, MicroPlace promises to provide the necessary funding (in bulk) for those in need.

At launch, MicroPlace will be offering an added incentive to users (that means you) of its services: it will giving anyone interested in offering a loan ($50 or more) the option to use PayPal as the transactional medium of choice. Why is the use of PayPal an incentive? Well, according to a report on the announcement in BusinessWeek, eBay?s finance-centric branch company ?will process the loans free of charge.? Again, free of charge. This will most certainly been seen as a selling point for a great many people, as thousands upon thousands regularly rely on PayPal every day to conduct monetary exchanges. One can logically expected that the integration of eBay?s ?banking? service as an added convenience to be a welcoming entry point to the new micro-loan system.

The emergence of MicroPlace isn?t the first the world has heard of eBay (or those connected with the company) doing good deeds. The company?s founder, Pierre Omidyar, along with his spouse, have already been well recognized for their devotion of ?hundreds of millions of dollars to micro-lending through their foundation, the Omidyar Network,? as well as their investment in Kiva, a San Francisco-based microfinance organization.

The debut of MicroPlace is really something of a next step for eBay, in which the auctioneer itself begins to partake in the effort to combat poverty by providing a venue that allows for increased (and sustainable) investment throughout the world. A good bit of news, for sure.