Ebay: 15 Years & Growing
Ebay was created in September 1995, by Pierre Omidyar, who lived in San Jose California.
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.
What was the first thing ever sold on Ebay? It was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which sold for $14.
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 . . .