Ebay Introduction

Introduction:

eBay establishes itself as the “The world’s Online Marketplace” .Coincidently, it is also the

positioning statement of eBay,which itself means many things about the company’s identity, it

enables trade on local, national and international basis, with a diverse and passionate community

of individuals and small businesses, Bay offers an online platform where millions of items are

traded each day.

According to company lore, the idea for eBay came from founder Pierre Omidyar’s wife, who

wanted to trade Pez dispensers with other collectors over the Internet. In truth Omidyar had been

pondering an Internet auction venture before he was ever aware of Pez mania. He says that he had

been thinking about how to create an efficient marketplace-a level playing field, where everyone

had access to the same information and could compete on the same terms as anyone else.”

After writing the code for the site, Omidyar launched eBay from his home in mid-1995.the

concept of an Internet marketplace caught on so quickly that by the end of the year, eBay was

getting a few thousand hits daily. Even more impressive the website was profitable from its

inception. The objective at ebay was to develop the work ethics and culture of eBay as a fun,

open and trusting environment and to keep the organization focused on the big picture objectives

and key priorities.

Ebay went public in September 1998 at $18 a share. By early march 1999, the stock was trading

approximately b$282 per share. The company market capitalization had surpassed that of even

Amazon.com, making it the world’s most valuable Internet retailer.