eBay announced the launch of a new services for sellers and developers. The services expand the reach for sellers with a new platform, new APIs and a new way for to get in front of eBay sellers.

The new platform initiatives are significant in that they enable developers even more opportunities to make more money with eBay. The program gives developers access to all the data that eBay’s existing online app for medium- and large-scale retailers. EBay estimates that their developer program currently has 70,000 members who have created approximately 12,000 live applications.

“We’re announcing opening up the eBay.com site for developers and in the process enabling a new monetization channel for developers,” said Kumar Kandaswamy, Senior Manager, Developer Platform Strategy, eBay Developers Program. “With Project Echo, the next generation eBay platform that is being announced, developers can embed their applications where hundreds of thousands of sellers manage their businesses on the eBay.com site.”

Like other online apps that have become platforms, such as Salesforce.com and Facebook, eBay’s new initiative, called Project Echo, will give developers not just access to rich data they can package up for customers, but also a marketing channel for their applications.

Project Echo will allow app developers to pitch their apps to just the potential customers they are looking for. For example, if an app is designed only for high-volume electronics sellers, Project Echo will make sure that those sellers get queued up to see pitches for the app; other sellers won’t be bothered with it.

In order to get into the Project Echo program, developers have to meet certain standards for trustworthiness. Also, all apps must have 30-day free trials. In return, developers will get access to “special APIs that are only available to people who integrate in Project Echo,” according to Max Mancini, senior director of Mobile Platform and Disruptive Innovation.