Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Jeffrey Lindsay with Sanford Bernstein.
Jeffrey Lindsay - Sanford C. Bernstein
Could I ask, what do you think is the impact of couponing on eBay's total revenues and take rate? And could you give us a sense of the relative magnitude of couponing and seller discounts? My question is about as eBay shifts to larger institutional power sellers, can we expect more discounting?
And then secondly, could you indicate financially how these discounts and couponing are recorded? Are they contra revenues or costs? Thank you.
Robert H. Swan
I will try to take them all. First, we indicated that our marketplaces revenue in the quarter were impacted by three points, and that was a function of three things: a modestly lower take rate from the price changes we made; secondly, higher discounting for the power sellers who continue to improve their overall service levels; and third, coupon as it relates to retaining our buyers as opposed to acquiring new ones. So a combination of those three things impacted marketplace revenue by three points in the quarter. That impacts overall Inc. level revenues by about two points.
In terms of the power seller discounts, we think this is a great program to incent our power sellers to continue to provide a better experience for our buyers, so to the extent that they keep providing great service, we think that will help grow the business; in turn, we’ll reward those power sellers with discounts at the back end.
And lastly in terms of how we account for both couponing and power seller discounts, they -- power seller discounts is in effect a reduction of our take rate and couponing is treated as contra revenues, so they both impact our top line growth rate.
I should say you also will have noticed a dramatic decrease in sales and marketing percent, as a percent of total revenue and that is a function of the trade-off we’re making in terms of we’re using contra revenue couponing for better retention as opposed to more acquisition related sales and marketing expenses. So sales and marketing came down quite a bit during the course of the quarter.
Operator
Our next question will come from Doug Anmuth with Lehman Brothers.
Brian Fenske - Lehman Brothers
This is actually Brian Fenske on the line for Doug. A quick question; there had been discussion about rolling out category specific pricing. In the U.S., you’ve rolled out media. Is there any sort of timeline for rolling out more category specific pricing in the U.S.?
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