| eBay was created in September 1995, by a man | | | | eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the |
| called Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose. He | | | | one-millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of |
| wanted his site - then called 'AuctionWeb' - to be an | | | | Big Bird from Sesame Street). |
| online marketplace, and wrote the first code for it in | | | | Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dotcom boom - |
| one weekend. It was one of the first websites of its | | | | eBay became big business, and the investment in |
| kind in the world. The name 'eBay' comes from the | | | | Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in |
| domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's | | | | senior managers and business strategists, who took |
| name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was | | | | in public on the stock market. It started to |
| originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at The | | | | encourage people to sell more than just collectibles, |
| first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's | | | | and quickly became a massive site where you could |
| broken laser pointer, which he got $14 for. | | | | sell anything, large or small. Unlike other sites, though, |
| The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers | | | | eBay survived the end of the boom, and is still going |
| came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers | | | | strong today. |
| actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to | | | | 1999 saw eBay go worldwide, launching sites in the |
| work remarkably well, and meant that the site could | | | | UK, Australia and Germany. eBay bought half.com, an |
| almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been | | | | Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000 - the |
| designed from the start to collect a small fee on | | | | same year it introduced Buy it Now - and bought |
| each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar used | | | | PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002. |
| to pay for AuctionWeb's expansion. The fees quickly | | | | Pierre Omidyar has now earned an estimated $3 |
| added up to more than his current salary, and so he | | | | billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the |
| decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. | | | | Board. Oddly enough, he keeps a personal weblog at |
| It was at this point, in 1996, that he added the | | | | There are now literally millions of items bought and |
| feedback facilities, to let buyers and sellers rate each | | | | sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every |
| other and make buying and selling safer. | | | | $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 |
| In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb's - and his | | | | is spent on eBay - that's a lot of laser pointers. |
| company's - name to 'eBay', which is what people | | | | Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps |
| had been calling the site for a long time. He began to | | | | you'd like to know how it could work for you? Our |
| spend a lot of money on advertising, and had the | | | | next email will give you an idea of the possibilities. |