NEW YORK — EBay plans to grow by thinking small as it prepares for life apart from PayPal.

The company says it is focusing on expanding the number of small- to mid-size businesses and individuals who buy and sell items on its popular online marketplace.

That comes as it attempts to address investor concerns about how it will fare later this year after it spins off its PayPal payments division, which has long been eBay’s fastest-growing segment.

CEO John Donahoe said Wednesday the company says it moving toward the spinoff with “clarity and speed.”

EBay’s first-quarter earnings may have mitigated investors’ concern somewhat. The results beat expectations as revenue, excluding the impact of the stronger dollar, grew in both segments. A stronger dollar cuts into revenue generated overseas when it’s translated back into dollars.

“We are deeply committed to setting up eBay and PayPal to succeed and to deliver sustainable value to our shareholders,” Donahoe said.

The e-commerce company is seeking to reinvigorate its marketplace business, which includes the e-commerce arm of eBay. It stumbled last year when it had to deal with a change in Google’s algorithms that made eBay products come up in search results less often. It was also hit by a data breach that led to all its users being required to change their password.

For the quarter ending March 31, marketplaces revenue fell 4 percent to $2.07 billion, hurt by the stronger dollar. But the company said it sees signs of stabilization in active buyers and gross merchandise volume, or the total amount of goods sold, excluding the impact of the stronger dollar.

“Our quarter one results are encouraging,” said Devin Wenig, who will be CEO of eBay after the spinoff..