eBay: The First 10 Years.

Yes, you read that correctly: ten years. eBay was created in September 1995, by a man called Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose. He wanted his site - then called 'AuctionWeb' - to be an online marketplace, and wrote the first code for it in one weekend. It was one of the first websites of its kind in the world. The name 'eBay' comes from the domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he got $14 for.

The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar used to pay for AuctionWeb's expansion. The fees quickly added up to more than his current salary, and so he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. It was at this point, in 1996, that he added the feedback facilities, to let buyers and sellers rate each other and make buying and selling safer.

In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb's - and his company's - name to 'eBay', which is what people had been calling the site for a long time. He began to spend a lot of money on advertising, and had the eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the one-millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of Big Bird from Sesame Street).

Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dotcom boom - eBay became big business, and the investment in Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in senior managers and business strategists, who took in public on the stock market. It started to encourage people to sell more than just collectibles, and quickly became a massive site where you could sell anything, large or small. Unlike other sites, though, eBay survived the end of the boom, and is still going strong today.

1999 saw eBay go worldwide, launching sites in the UK, Australia and Germany. eBay bought half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000 - the same year it introduced Buy it Now - and bought PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002.

Pierre Omidyar has now earned an estimated $3 billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the Board. Oddly enough, he keeps a personal weblog at http://pierre.typepad.com. There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay - that's a lot of laser pointers.

Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you'd like to know how it could work for you? Our next email will give you an idea of the possibilities.

[Home]
[eBay: The First 10 Years.]
[EBay Income Possibilities.]
[How to Choose the Right eBay Product Category.]
[eBay Title Writing Tips.]
[How to Use eBay to Grow Your Other Businesses.]
[Taming the eBay Search Engine.]
[What You Need to Know BEFORE You Get Started on eBay.]
[10 Sure-fire Ways to Kill Your eBay Business.]
[How to Think Like an eBay PowerSeller.]
[When Things Go Wrong: How to Resolve eBay Disputes.]
[A Beginner's Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types]
[Staying Out of Trouble with eBay's Listing Policies.]
[Learning the eBay "Lingo".]
[Is the eBay Customer Always Right?]
[What's Your eBay Reputation Really Worth?]
[eBay - Part Time or Full? How to Decide.]
[Tips and Tricks for Using eBay Search.]
[Watch Out for eBay Automobile and Computer Scams.]
[10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay.]
[How to Get eBay Coupons.]
[Tips for Buying Collectibles on eBay.]
[5 Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction.]
[SafeHarbor; eBay's Own Scotland Yard.]
[An eBay Seller's Checklist.]
[eBay Description Writing Tips.]
[10 Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response.]
[An Introduction to Bidding and Buying on eBay.]
[How Important is Your Buyer's Reputation?]
[Your Rights as an eBay Buyer.]
[Using PayPal on eBay.]
[How Important is Your Buyer's Reputation?]
[The eBay Buyer's FAQ.]
[How to Check an eBay Seller's Reputation (and Why You Should Do It).]
[Understanding the Different eBay Auction Types.]
[eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks.]
[Introducing the New eBay "Buyer's Credit" Program.]
[When to "Buy Now" and When to Bid.]
[When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why You Might Not Want To).]
[You Won that eBay Auction! Now What Do You Do?]
[Taking Advantage of "Slow" eBay Auctions.]

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