EBay Inc, struggling to compete in a crowded and slowing e-commerce market, is remaking the company, starting by accelerating growth at its nascent PayPal payments system, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Chief Executive John Donahoe said at the company's annual analyst day that changes to its slowing marketplaces business were overdue, and the pace of recent changes would increase.

Today we will share with you a different eBay, Donahoe told a throng of analysts and investors in San Jose, California. The eBay you knew is not the eBay we are, or the eBay we will become.

PayPal President Scott Thompson added that the online payments arena would double the size of its business within two years.

We believe it will be bigger than marketplaces because its target audience is all of e-commerce, Donahoe told analysts.

The core eBay business must change and it will, Donahoe said, saying changes to date had not been sufficient.

The online auctions leader, which also operates Web-based telephone company Skype, is trying to convince Wall Street it remains a vibrant player with growth still ahead.

Donohoe warned that growth at its marketplaces division -- the company's main profit and revenue driver, which sells everything from cars to appliances online -- would slow in 2009, be flat with the e-commerce market in 2010, but grow faster than that market in 2011.

Investors are questioning how the San Jose-based company can boost its performance in the recession and fend off a strong retail performance from Amazon.com.

The global company has seen its shares lose two-thirds of their value since last year.

But in a possible reference to the online retailer, Donohoe said: We are not a retailer. We do not aspire to be a retailer.

In past years, eBay has bought classified ads businesses around the world to diversify from auctions, while some analysts and investors have pushed for the company to spin off either its PayPal or Skype divisions.

We're done apologizing for Skype, Donahoe said, adding that the company would make the right decisions to maximize Skype's value.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage, editing by Matthew Lewis)

California Software Ebay PayPal