eBay is building a new division to woo developers and attract more merchants as the company tries to emulate the success of Apple's iOS platform in the e-commerce world.

eBay's main business is still its giant online marketplaces, which bring shoppers and sellers together. The company's other big division is the payment business PayPal and it acquired GSI Commerce earlier this year to add a third division.But a fourth business has emerged in recent months called X.commerce. The website for the division, X.com, revives a name from the early days of PayPal, when it merged a competing online payments business called X.com started by Elon Musk.

X.commerce is trying to persuade outside developers to create applications, or apps, for merchants looking to sell more online.