The History of eBay

Last night's eBay class was a huge success.  I'm really looking forward to the next 3 weeks.  It's great to have awsome students!

Part of my "intro" to the basic eBay class is to tell about the history of eBay--so I thought I'd put it here, too.

eBay was founded 15 years ago by Pierre Omidyar, who worked in Silicone Valley (near San Francisco, CA), home to many of the world's largest technology companies.  He was 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became eBay. The site was launched on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 1995, as "Auction Web"; it was hosted on a site Omidyar had created for information on the ebola virus.

The word 'eBay' was made up on the fly by Omidyar when he was told that his first choice for his web site, 'echobay,' had already been registered. Not wanting to make a second trip to Sacramento to register the name, he came up with 'eBay.'  The service was free at first, but started charging in order to cover internet service provider costs.

In March 1998, Meg Whitman (who just yesterday lost her bid for governor of California) was brought in as President and CEO and continued to run the company until January 2008 when she announced her retirement.

The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media.

Millions of eBay members now sell on the site with their own eBay business. eBay has made it easy for people to start a small eBay business in their homes, and has lead to the creation of many large businesses as well. Thousands of people in the U.S. work in their own small eBay business, selling items on eBay full time. Over 700,000 people in the U.S. now rely on their eBay sales as part of their income.