Skip to main content

The First 10 Years of EBAY

Ebay Marketing - The First 10 Years of EBAY


Ebay Marketing - Yes, you read that correctly: ten years. eBay was created in September 1995, by a man called Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose. He wanted his site - then called 'AuctionWeb' - to be an online marketplace, and wrote the first code for it in one weekend. It was one of the first websites of its kind in the world. The name 'eBay' comes from the domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he got $14 for.


Ebay Marketing


The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar used to pay for AuctionWeb's expansion. The fees quickly added up to more than his current salary, and so he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. It was at this point, in 1996, that he added the feedback facilities, to let buyers and sellers rate each other and make buying and selling safer.

Ebay Marketing


In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb's - and his company's - name to 'eBay', which is what people had been calling the site for a long time. He began to spend a lot of money on advertising, and had the eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the one-millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of Big Bird from Sesame Street).

Then, in 1998 - the peak of the dotcom boom - eBay became big business, and the investment in Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in senior managers and business strategists, who took in public on the stock market. It started to encourage people to sell more than just collectibles, and quickly became a massive site where you could sell anything, large or small. Unlike other sites, though, eBay survived the end of the boom, and is still going strong today.

1999 saw eBay go worldwide, launching sites in the UK, Australia and Germany. eBay bought half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000 - the same year it introduced Buy it Now - and bought PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002.

Pierre Omidyar has now earned an estimated $3 billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the Board. Oddly enough, he keeps a personal weblog at http://pierre.typepad.com. There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay - that's a lot of laser pointers.

Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you'd like to know how it could work for you? Our next email will give you an idea of the possibilities.

Most Popular Posts

Your Ultimate Secret Weapon: Having the Best Products to Sell on EBay

Ebay Marketing - Ultimate Secret Weapon of eBay Ebay Marketing - Planning to become an eBay seller ? Do you know that your secret weapon on making more money in the eBay business depends on what items to put up for sale? Yes, indeed! Knowing how to have the best products to sell on eBay may be the edge you need to profit more.   Ebay Marketing There are several things to consider in order for you to get the best products to sell on eBay . You may have a particular product line already focused on or are still wondering about what items you can sell. Here are several tips and ideas to perk up your mind and help you arrive at a decision.

The eBay Buyer's FAQ.

Ebay Marketing - The eBay Buyer's FAQ Ebay Marketing - So you have a question? Has something gone very wrong and you don't know what to do? Well, fair enough. Here are the questions that I hear all the time from buyers. Does eBay have a Customer Service Department I Can Phone?

eBay Title Writing Tips

Ebay Marketing - Title Writing Tips Ebay Marketing - Trying to be help your buyers find your auctions can be a truly daunting task. Most people only search eBay by title, not by description, and that means that you only have those 55 characters of the title to cover all the possible search terms. That's not easy. In this email , I'll give you a few pointers. Don't bother with eBay clichés : There are plenty of eBay auction titles that say things like "Super rare camera wow look low price" . These are stupid things to put in your title, as no-one is going to search for them.

You Won that eBay Auction! Now What Do You Do?

Ebay Marketing - Won the eBay Auction Ebay Marketing - It's a heady feeling when you win your first eBay auction: a mixture of happiness and perhaps just a little fear. After all, there seems to be so much to do before you can actually get your item. What do you do next? Ebay Marketing The simple answer is: you send payment to the seller, as quickly as possible. The quicker you pay, the more your seller will like you, and the sooner your item will arrive. But how you go about it? That all depends on how you plan to pay.

When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid (and Why You Might Not Want To).

Ebay Marketing - Withdraw Your eBay Bid Ebay Marketing - eBay are a little strict about letting you withdraw your bid . They call it a 'bid retraction', and have a stringent set of conditions that you must meet before you are allowed to do it. Here are eBay's three acceptable reasons for withdrawing a bid. You made a typographical error: This means that you accidentally typed the wrong amount into the bid box, bidding a far higher price than you meant to. This can be scary: imagine bidding $100 and accidentally adding an extra '0'! You are entirely allowed to withdraw your bid in this situation, and bid again if you want to.

Auto Responder Marketing Techniques

The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing with auto responders. Here are a couple of popular ways of using them. DIRECTORY Some webmasters set up link or article directories on their sites. They create a directory on a specific industry topic, placing their own ad or banner along the top. Then they invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. Or they invite articles to be submitted that include a resource box at the bottom of each with a link to the author’s website. This results on increased traffic as sites link up across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” or “article directory software” into a favorite search engine for help with each.

eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks.

Ebay Marketing - eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks Ebay Marketing - eBay isn't just an auction and a marketplace: often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try. Shop in the Summer. This is simple, but effective. Summer is the quiet season on eBay - almost everything sells for less. While everyone else is out enjoying the sun, invest a little time to find some real bargains.

Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Affiliate Marketing With PPC Affiliate Marketing - PPC is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008. Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work. These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.

When to "Buy Now" and When to Bid.

Ebay Marketing - Time to Bid Ebay Marketing - You will often find yourself facing the choice of whether to pay a fixed price or keep on bidding. This choice might be presented to you in a single auction , or you might be choosing between different auctions of the different types. So should you use that 'Buy it Now' button or keep on trying to outbid everyone else? It's all a question of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.

5 Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction

Ebay Marketing - First eBay Auction Ebay Marketing - It's surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay . Here's what you need to do. Step 1: Open an eBay seller's account. If you've bought things on eBay , then you already have an account - just log in with it and click 'Sell' in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click 'Create a seller's account '. If you've never used eBay before, then you'll need to open an account first using the 'register' link underneath the toolbar, and then click 'Sell' and 'Create a seller's account'. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.