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The online auction website eBay was first
launched by Pierre Omidyar in the fall of
1995 as an online person-to-person trading
community on the Internet. Omidyar’s
purpose was to experiment how equal access
to information and opportunities would
affect the efficiency of a marketplace. He
was twenty-eight years old at the time when
he created what would become the
internationally successful eBay. Omidyar
started the company from his home under the
initial name of AuctionWeb, owned by Echo
Bay Technology, his consulting firm. Finding
that the Echobay.com domain was already
registered, it was soon changed to eBay.com.
Auction Web was hosted on a larger site; one
that Omidyar had created containing
information on other topics, including
infectious diseases.
The first item that was ever sold on the
website was a laser pointer that no longer
worked for almost fifteen dollars. The
original story was that the company was
founded in order to help Omidyar’s fiancée
find rare and collectible Pez candy
dispensers. It was later revealed that this
story was fictitious and made up by a public
relations firm in order to garner interest
from the media. The company took off as
people began to trade their items among one
another. Originally, a fee was not charged
to participate in the trading, but Omidyar
later added a nominal fee in order to cover
the maintenance and expansion involved with
the website.
From this point on eBay grew by leaps and
bounds all on its own. The real secret of
eBay’s success online was its ability to
create a community of people that governed
the buying and selling process by a feedback
system. Ebay’s expanded service offerings
were also a direct result of its users needs
and wants. Most importantly, it leveled the
playing field allowing ordinary people to
compete with traditional retailers.
By 1996, Jeff Skoll joined the company when
it began to turn a profit. Over the years
eBay would enter into several licensing
deals that helped further increase the
website’s profitability. Two years following
its creation, AuctionWeb’s name was
officially changed to eBay. During this
period, eBay was hosting over eight hundred
thousand auctions on a daily basis. In 1998,
Meg Whitman was brought in as President and
CEO of eBay and continues to hold that
position today. By 1998, the company was
publicly offered and made Omidyar and Skoll
instant billionaires, a mere three years
after the company’s launch. It has been
estimated that Omidyar’s eBay shares are
worth over eight billion dollars.
Following the success of eBay, Omidyar would
launch the Omidyar Network. This company
invests in a multitude of different areas,
including microfinance, technology and
community based programs. In November 2005,
Pierre Omidyar gave a $100 million endowment
to the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund, the
largest gift in the history of Tufts
University. Omidyar has been quoted as
saying, "You can make the world a better
place and make money at the same time."
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eBay auctions home business:
