eBay Inc was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and it is an American multinational internet consumer-to-consumer corporation. It is an online community built on commerce and people can buy or sell goods through the website.
Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of eBay in 1996. eBay went public on September 21, 1988 and the target share price of $18 but the price drastically increased to $53.50 on the first day of trading. Skoll and Omidyar instantly became billionaires.
eBay does not actually sell goods itself, it is a meeting place to connect with buyers or sellers of the items you are looking to purchase or sell. It is free to join and sellers must pay a minimal amount to list items for sale and another small percentage when the item is sold. The requirements and procedures are very transparent and this is just one of the reasons for eBay’s success. That is not to say that all sellers are honest, and in this sense, eBay has a very real-world feel to it. However, if a seller is dishonest, buyers can report this seller and give them bad reviews. So in many ways, eBay is also a social forum where individual sellers and businesses will get bad reviews and rankings if they do not fulfill their promises or are dishonest about a product.
eBay functions as an online auction and buyers can bid on items that they want. Because a buyer bid on an item does not guarantee they will win the auction. Out-bidding is common and, many users would agree, part of the fun and appeal of eBay. The website, however, added the “Buy It Now” feature so many of the items you can still bid on but if you do not want to get in a bidding war, you can simply “Buy It Now”, which is usually the price that the seller desires to receive for the product.
Payment via PayPal is also a function on eBay. It because a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay in October 2002.
The company has expanded to over two dozen countries which include China and India.
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