Re: Ebay .de
Haydee Cliche
eBay Inc. (/ˈiːbeɪ/ EE-bay, often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that brokers customer to customer and retail sales through online marketplaces in 190 markets worldwide. Sales occur either via online auctions or "buy it now" instant sales, and the company charges commissions to sellers upon sales. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in September 1995. It has 132 million yearly active buyers worldwide and handled $73 billion in transactions in 2023, 48% of which was in the United States. In 2023, the company had a take rate (revenue as a percentage of volume) of 13.81%.[1]
eBay is used by individuals, companies, as well as governments to purchase and sell almost any legal, non-controversial item. eBay's auctions use a Vickrey auction (sealed-bid) proxy bid system. Buyers and sellers may rate and review each other after each transaction, resulting in a reputation system. The eBay service is accessible via websites and mobile apps. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API. Merchants can also earn commissions from affiliate marketing programs by eBay.
eBay was founded as AuctionWeb in California on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as a hobby to make some extra money.[2] 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; the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."[3]
In February 1996, Omidyar's internet service provider informed him that he would need to upgrade to a business account due to the high web traffic of his website. The monthly price increase from $30 to $250 prompted Omidyar to start charging eBay users. The website made $1,000 in its first month, which was more than it cost to run, and $2,500 in its second month.[2] Chris Agarpao was eBay's first employee; he processed mailed check payments.[4]
Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996.[4] In November 1996, the company launched online auctions for airline seats, hotel rooms, cruise berths and other travel-related products in partnership with Electronic Travel Auctions. By that time, the company had hosted more than 200,000 auctions since its founding 14 months earlier.[5]
The company changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997, after Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. The echobay.com domain name was already registered by Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so Omidyar shortened it to eBay.com. In 1997, the company received $6.7 million in venture capital funding from Benchmark.[6]
The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiance trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated in 1997 by public relations manager Mary Lou Song to give the media a human-interest story and to generate publicity with toy collectors.[4]
The most purchased and sold items on the website were Beanie Babies, the most difficult toys to find in retail stores, accounting for 10% of all listings in 1997. Ty, the manufacturer, had set up a website whereby people could trade used Beanie Babies. However, it was overwhelmed with unsortable listings. With a user-friendly interface, eBay became popular with collectors.[7]
In September 1998, during the dot-com bubble, eBay became a public company via an initial public offering led by CFO Gary F. Bengier.[9] Upon the initial public offering, which was priced at $18 per share and closed for trading on its first day at $53 per share, both Omidyar and Skoll became billionaires.[10]
In the risk factors section of the annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998, Omidyar noted eBay's dependence on the continued strength of the Beanie Babies market.[11]
In 2000, eBay partnered with Escrow.com to handle escrow for purchases and sales of motor vehicles, later expanded to other transaction types.[14] By year-end, it had 22.5 million registered users and 79.4 million auctions per quarter.[15]
In February 2002, eBay exited Japan due to competition from Yahoo! Japan and began operations in Taiwan with the acquisition of NeoCom Technology for $9.5 million.[20][21] In June 2006, eBay turned over its operations in Taiwan to a joint venture partner.[22]
On May 28, 2003, in the case of eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., which had implications for the treatment of business method patents, a United States district court jury found eBay guilty of willful patent infringement and ordered the company to pay $35 million in damages after MercExchange accused eBay of infringing on three patents, one of which is used in eBay's "Buy It Now" feature. The decision was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The CAFC affirmed the judgment of willful infringement, and reversed the lower court and granted a permanent injunction. eBay appealed the permanent injunction to the Supreme Court of the United States, which on May 15, 2006 found an injunction is not required nor automatic in this or any patent case where guilt has been established. The case was sent back to the Virginia district court for consideration of the injunction and a trial on another MercExchange patent.[27]
ProStores was an e-commerce website hosting company owned by eBay. Formerly known as Kurant StoreSense, ProStores was acquired by eBay Inc. by the end of 2005 changing the name to ProStores by eBay.[40] ProStores' feature set included simple wizard-driven website, e-commerce capabilities, site design tools and e-business management. Smaller merchants could also manage the entire process of posting and selling products on eBay using the ProStores interface. It also offered inventory management, supplier communication and integration with Quickbooks and Dreamweaver. eBay announced on July 1, 2014 that support for the platform would end February 1, 2015.[41]
In April 2006, eBay launched eBay Express, a site that was designed to work like a standard Internet shopping site, with fixed prices and no bidding involved. The website had 10 million items listed upon its launch.[43][44][45][46] The site was shut down in October 2008.[47]
In April 2008, eBay sued Craigslist, claiming that in January 2008, Craigslist took actions that "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest by more than 10%", making eBay lose its seat on the board of directors of Craigslist.[52] Craigslist countersued in May 2008 alleging that eBay used its board seat to gain insider information about Craigslist that was used to compete against the company.[53] In September 2010, Delaware Judge William B. Chandler III ruled that the actions of Craigslist were unlawful and that the actions were taken by Craigslist founders Jim Buckmaster and Craig Newmark had "breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty", and restored eBay's stake in the company to 28.4% from a diluted level of 24.85%.[54] However, the judge dismissed eBay's objection to a staggered board provision, citing that Craigslist has the right to protect its own trade secrets.[55][56][54]
In January 2008, Meg Whitman resigned as president and CEO of eBay to enter politics, and was replaced with John Donahoe. Whitman remained on the board of directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008.[57]
In November 2009, eBay sold a 70% stake in Skype to a consortium led by Silver Lake Partners and Marc Andreessen at a $2.75 billion valuation, while retaining a 30% minority ownership interest in Skype, after failing to integrate Skype into the company's online marketplace.[62][63][64] Microsoft acquired the entire company for $8.5 billion in May 2011.[65]
In October 2012, eBay launched an international shipping partnership with Pitney Bowes whereby a seller of an item to be shipped internationally can send the item to a Pitney Bowes facility in their home country, which then forwards it to the international buyer, taking care of all international shipping requirements.[73] The company also launched a partnership with FedEx to offer discounted shipping options to sellers.[74]
In November 2012, eBay was charged in the High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, accused by the United States Department of Justice of entering into non-solicitation agreements with other technology companies involving highly skilled employees.[75] The litigation was settled in May 2014, with eBay required to end anti-competitive practices.[76]
On September 30, 2014, eBay announced it would spin off PayPal into a separate publicly traded company, a demand made nine months prior by activist hedge fund magnate Carl Icahn.[77][78] The spinoff was completed on July 18, 2015. eBay's then chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down from that role.[79][80][81]
Flipkart and eBay entered into a strategic partnership in July 2017 under which eBay acquired a 5.44% stake in Flipkart in exchange for the contribution of its India business unit valued at $211 million and a $514 million cash investment in Flipkart. Flipkart launched a program to allow its sellers to sell to customers globally in partnership with eBay. eBay reported a gain of $167 million on the sale of its India operations.[90][91][92][93] In May 2018, eBay sold its stake in Flipkart to Walmart and relaunched its operations in India.[94]
In October 2017, eBay released image retrieval capability allowing users to find listings on the site that match an item depicted in a photo, using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.[96][97]
In September 2019, facing pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management, Devin Wenig resigned as CEO. Scott Schenkel, senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2015, was appointed as the interim CEO.[107][108]
In July 2020, eBay sold its classifieds business to Adevinta for $2.5 billion in cash and 540 million shares of Adevinta. To gain regulatory approval, Gumtree was further divested. eBay sold its shares in Adevinta in 2023, when that company was acquired by private equity firms.[114][115][116]
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