Type of business | Public |
---|---|
Type of site
|
E-commerce, online auction hosting |
Available in | Multilingual |
Traded as |
NASDAQ: EBAY NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component |
Founded | September 3, 1995 | (as AuctionWeb)
Headquarters | San Jose, California United States |
Coordinates | 37°17′44″N 121°55′39″W / 37.295448°N 121.927453°WCoordinates: 37°17′44″N 121°55′39″W / 37.295448°N 121.927453°W |
Founder(s) | Pierre Omidyar |
Key people |
Thomas J. Tierney (Chairman) Devin Wenig (CEO) |
Industry | Internet |
Services | Online shopping |
Revenue | US$8.97 billion (2016) |
Operating income | US$2.32 billion (2016) |
Net income | US$7.26 billion (2016) |
Total assets | US$23.84 billion (2016) |
Total equity | US$10.53 billion (2016) |
Employees | 12,600 (2016) |
Subsidiaries | eBayClassifieds, Kijiji, iBazar, GittiGidiyor, Gumtree, Stubhub, Half.com, Marktplaats.nl |
Slogan(s) | "World's Online Marketplace." "Connecting buyers and sellers globally." "Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay." "Buy it, sell it, love it" "Buy it New, Buy it Now" "When it's on your mind, it's on eBay" |
Website | ebay |
IPv6 support | No |
Alexa rank | 34 (April 2017[update]) |
Registration | Guest checkout available on site, registration required to sell |
Native client(s) on | iOS, watchOS, Android, Windows, Windows Phone |
Written in | Java |
eBay Inc. (/ˈiːˌbeɪ/ EE-bay) is a multinational e-commerce corporation, facilitating online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales. It is headquartered in San Jose, California. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble. Today it is a multibillion-dollar business with operations in about 30 countries.
The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-style sales, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of number (via Half.com); online classified advertisements (via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); and other services. It previously offered online money transfers (via PayPal), which was a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay from 2002 until 2015. The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for listing items and again when those items are sold.
The AuctionWeb was founded in California on September 3, 1995 by French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar (born June 21, 1967) as part of a larger personal site. One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."