eBay is a Silicon Valley, US based company exclusively focused on e-commerce.
The site deals with the buying and sale of nearly everything in the C2C and B2C space.
The company was founded in September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian – American entrepreneur and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar.
It is today headed by CEO Devin Wenig, for CEO of Thomson Reuters Markets and COO of Reuters Group.
The company’s shopping website, ebay.com, is free to use. Money is made from charging sellers for listing their products. A further fee is charged when a product is sold.
What was the first product ever sold?
eBay was first launched as AuctionWeb as Omidyar’s hobby. The first product ever to be sold was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.
Omidyar quickly understood there was a market opportunity, and within the months the company expanded enough to start employing new staff. Chris Agarpao was eBay’s first employee and he was responsible for the company’s global billing. He still works for eBay.
Today, eBay’s services run on any major OS, both mobile or desktop. Revenues in 2015 topped nearly $9bn, with an operating income of just over $2bn.
