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eBay facts for kids
For the song by "Weird Al" Yankovic, see eBay (song). For the U.S. Supreme Court case, see eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.
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Headquarters in the Willow Glen district of San Jose, California
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Formerly
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AuctionWeb (1995–1997) |
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| Public | |
| Traded as | |
| Industry | E-commerce |
| Founded | September 3, 1995 |
| Founder | Pierre Omidyar |
| Headquarters | , |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Services | Online shopping |
| Revenue |  US$10.3 billion (2024) |
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Operating income
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US$2.32 billion (2024) |
 US$1.98 billion (2024) |
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| Total assets | US$19.4 billion (2024) |
| Total equity | US$5.16 billion (2024) |
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Number of employees
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c. 11,500 (2024) |
| Subsidiaries | Qoo10, TCGPlayer |
eBay office in Toronto, Canada
eBay Inc. is a big online company based in San Jose, California, in the United States. It helps people buy and sell items through its websites in 190 countries around the world. You can find items through online auctions or by using the "buy it now" option for instant sales. eBay charges sellers a small fee when their items are sold.
Pierre Omidyar started eBay in September 1995. In 2023, 132 million people used eBay to buy things, and about $73 billion worth of items were sold. Almost half of these sales happened in the United States. eBay is a public company, which means its shares can be bought and sold on the stock market.
Anyone can use eBay, whether they are individuals, businesses, or even governments, to buy and sell almost anything that is legal and not controversial. After each sale, buyers and sellers can rate each other. This helps build a reputation system, so you know who you are dealing with. You can use eBay through its website or mobile apps.
Contents
The Story of eBay
Pierre Omidyar, who started eBay
How eBay Started in the 1990s
eBay began as a website called AuctionWeb in California on September 3, 1995. It was created by a computer programmer named Pierre Omidyar as a fun side project to earn some extra money. One of the very first things sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Omidyar was surprised and asked the buyer if they knew it was broken. The buyer replied, "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."
As the website grew, Omidyar had to upgrade his internet service because so many people were visiting his site. This cost more money, but the website quickly started making enough to cover its costs and even more. Chris Agarpao was the first person hired at eBay; he helped process payments.
In early 1996, Jeffrey Skoll became the first president of the company. By November 1996, the company had hosted over 200,000 auctions.
The company changed its name from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. The name "eBay" came from Omidyar's consulting firm, Echo Bay Technology Group. However, the website address "echobay.com" was already taken by a gold mining company, so Omidyar shortened it to eBay.com.
A popular story about eBay starting so Omidyar's fiancée could trade Pez candy dispensers was actually made up by a public relations manager in 1997. It was a way to get media attention. At that time, the most popular items sold on eBay were Beanie Babies, which were hard to find in stores. eBay became very popular with collectors because it made it easy to trade these toys.
Meg Whitman became the president and CEO of eBay in March 1998. At that time, eBay had 30 employees and 500,000 users. In September 1998, eBay became a public company. This meant its shares were sold to the public on the stock market. Both Omidyar and Skoll became billionaires after this.
eBay in the 2000s
In June 2000, eBay bought Half.com, another online selling site. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal, a company that helps people send and receive money online. PayPal became eBay's main way for people to pay for items.
eBay tried to enter the Chinese market in 2002 but later closed its Chinese site in 2007 because of strong competition from a local company called Taobao. Similarly, eBay left Japan in 2002 due to competition.
In 2004, eBay bought a part of Craigslist, a website for classified ads. In 2005, eBay launched Kijiji and bought Gumtree, both of which are also classified advertising websites. In October 2005, eBay bought Skype, a company that provides online calls and messaging.
In April 2006, eBay launched eBay Express, a site where items were sold at fixed prices, without bidding. This site was closed in October 2008. In January 2007, eBay bought StubHub, a place where people can buy and sell tickets for events.
In January 2008, Meg Whitman stepped down as CEO and John Donahoe took over.
In May 2008, eBay opened a new building at its headquarters in San Jose, California. This building was designed to be very eco-friendly, using many solar panels to get power and saving a lot of energy and water.
In November 2009, eBay sold most of its share in Skype. Microsoft later bought the entire Skype company in May 2011.
eBay in the 2010s
In June 2011, eBay bought GSI Commerce, which was later renamed eBay Enterprise. In September 2012, eBay changed its logo to a new, thinner design.
In October 2012, eBay started working with Pitney Bowes to make international shipping easier for sellers. They also partnered with FedEx to offer shipping discounts.
In 2014, eBay announced that it would separate PayPal into its own company. This happened in July 2015.
In June 2015, eBay sold its share in Craigslist back to the company, ending a legal disagreement they had. In 2017, eBay partnered with Flipkart in India, but later sold its share in Flipkart in 2018 and restarted its own operations in India.
In October 2017, eBay added a cool new feature that lets users find items on the site by uploading a photo of something they are looking for. This uses artificial intelligence to match the image.
In January 2018, eBay announced it would use a new company called Adyen for payments instead of PayPal. In May 2018, eBay bought Qoo10, an e-commerce platform in Japan. In September 2018, eBay planned to add a security fence around its San Jose headquarters to keep employees safe.
In March 2019, eBay started paying a dividend to its shareholders for the first time. In November 2019, eBay agreed to sell StubHub to another company called Viagogo. This sale was completed in February 2020.
eBay in the 2020s
In April 2020, Jamie Iannone became the new CEO of eBay. In July 2020, eBay sold its classifieds business to another company.
In September 2020, Pierre Omidyar, who founded eBay, stepped down from the company's board of directors. In November 2021, eBay sold its business in South Korea.
In May 2022, eBay bought a part of Funko and became the main place to buy and sell Funko items. In June 2022, the company bought KnownOrigin, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In October 2022, eBay bought TCGPlayer, a marketplace for collectible card games.
In July 2023, eBay bought Certiligo, a company that uses artificial intelligence to create digital IDs and help check if clothing and fashion items are real.
In January 2024, eBay announced plans to reduce its workforce by about 9% because the company had hired more people than needed for its growth.
Giving Back: Charity Auctions
eBay has a program that allows sellers to donate a part of their sales to a charity of their choice. eBay also offers lower fees for these charity auctions.
One famous charity event on eBay is the "Power Lunch" with investor Warren Buffett. People would bid for a chance to have lunch with him, and all the money went to the Glide Foundation, which helps people in need. These auctions happened every year for 21 years, raising a total of $53.2 million for the Glide Foundation. The highest bid for a lunch with Buffett was $19 million in 2022. In May 2024, a charity auction for lunch with Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, raised $200,000 for the same foundation.
Another example of a charity auction was for a letter sent by Senator Harry Reid and other senators. It sold for over $2.1 million, and all the money went to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. This foundation helps educate children whose parents died while serving in the armed forces.
In 2022, more than $163 million was raised for different charities through the eBay platform.
More About eBay
- eBay v. Bidder's Edge
- List of acquisitions by eBay
- Shopping neutral
- Unusual eBay listings
See also
In Spanish: EBay para niños