eBay Inc. ( ) is an American
multinational e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
company based in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
, that facilitates
consumer-to-consumer
Customer to customer (C2C or consumer to consumer) markets provide a way to allow customers to interact with each other. Traditional markets require business to customer relationships, in which a customer goes to the business in order to purchas ...
and
business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by
Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a notable success story of the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
. eBay is a multibillion-dollar business with operations in about 32 countries, as of 2019.
The company manages the eBay website, an
online auction
An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with ...
and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a wide variety of
goods and services
Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens, physical books, salt, apples, and hats. Services are activities provided by other people, who include architects, suppliers, contractors, technologists, teachers, doc ...
worldwide. The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for listing items after a limited number of free listings, and an additional or separate fee when those items are sold.
In addition to eBay's original
auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
-style sales, the website has evolved and expanded to include: instant "Buy It Now" shopping; shopping by
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along wi ...
,
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...
, or other kind of
SKU number (via
Half.com
Half.com was an e-commerce website and a subsidiary of eBay in which sellers offered items for sale at fixed prices. The items available on half.com were limited to books, textbooks, music, movies, video games, and video game consoles.
Half prov ...
, which was shut down in 2017); and other services. eBay previously offered online money transfers as part of its services (via
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
,
which was a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay from 2002 to 2015); online classified advertisements (via
Kijiji
Kijiji.ca ( ; , ''village'') is a Canadian online classified advertising website and part of eBay Classifieds Group, which was acquired by Adevinta in 2020. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kij ...
, or eBay Classifieds Group); and online event ticket trading (via
StubHub
StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. It is the world's largest ticket marketplace. While the compa ...
). On July 25, 2018, eBay announced a new partnership with PayPal's rivals Apple and Square in place of its longtime payment partner PayPal.
History
1990s
The AuctionWeb was founded in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
on September 3, 1995, by French-born
Iranian-American computer programmer
Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger personal site.
One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken
laser pointer
A laser pointer or laser pen is a small handheld device with a power source (usually a battery) and a laser diode emitting a very narrow coherent low-powered laser beam of visible light, intended to be used to highlight something of interest by ...
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."
It soon became the first
online auction
An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with ...
site allowing person-to-person
transactions, and its popularity boomed.
Reportedly, eBay was simply a hobby for Omidyar until his Internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a business account due to his high website traffic. The monthly price increase from $30 to $250 prompted him to start charging eBay users, who continued to use the site. Chris Agarpao was eBay's first employee; he processed mailed check payments.
Jeffrey Skoll
Jeffrey Stuart Skoll, OC (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly ...
was hired as the first new president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, the
E-Commerce platform entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction, to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal: from auctions during all of 1996 to in January 1997 alone.
The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997, after Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. The domain name
echobay.com was already taken by a gold mining company,
so Omidyar shortened it to eBay.com.
In 1997 the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firm
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
History
The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mil ...
.
The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade
Pez
Pez (, ; stylised as PEZ) is the brand name of an Austrian candy and associated manual candy dispensers. The candy is a pressed, dry, straight-edged, curved-corner block 15 mm ( inch) long, 8 mm ( inch) wide and 5 mm ...
candy dispensers was fabricated in 1997 by
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
manager
Mary Lou Song to give the media a
human-interest story
In journalism, a human-interest story is a feature story that discusses people or pets in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reader o ...
more appealing than Omidyar's original vision of a "
perfect market
In economics, specifically general equilibrium theory, a perfect market, also known as an atomistic market, is defined by several idealizing conditions, collectively called perfect competition, or atomistic competition. In theoretical models whe ...
".
The Pez dispenser myth generated enormous publicity and led to explosive early growth among toy collectors.
The leader in the toy category quickly became
Beanie Babies
Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, ...
manufactured by
Ty, Inc., the most difficult toys to find in retail stores. As collectors internationally were trying to complete their collection of Beanie Babies, Ty set up the
first business-to-consumer Web site, a secondary-market online trading post where people could trade their Beanie Babies. However, it was overwhelmed with unsortable listings, creating an urgent demand for a more efficient online trading system.
Beanie Babies quickly became the dominant product on eBay, accounting for 10% of all listings in 1997, as collectors thronged eBay's user-friendly interface to search for specific Beanie Babies.
Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...
was hired by the board as eBay president and
CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees,
half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States.
On September 21, 1998, eBay went public.
In the risk factors section of the annual report filed with the
US Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
in 1998, Omidyar notes eBay's dependence on the continued strength of the Beanie Babies market.
After eBay went public, both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires: eBay's target of $18 per share was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.
2000s
As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, business grew quickly.
In 2000, eBay had 12 million registered users and a cyberinventory of more than 4.5 million items on sale on any given day. In 2001, eBay had the largest userbase of any
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
site.
In February 2002 the company purchased iBazar, a similar European auction web site founded in 1998, and then bought
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
on October 3, 2002.
By early 2008 the company had expanded worldwide, counting hundreds of millions of registered users as well as employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion. After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008, the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008, and
John Donahoe
John Joseph Donahoe II (born April 30, 1960) is an American businessman who is the CEO of Nike. Early in his career he worked for Bain & Company, becoming the firm's president and CEO in 1999. He is on the board of directors at Nike, The Bridgesp ...
was selected to become president and CEO. Whitman remained on the board of directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009 eBay completed the sale of
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
for $2.75 billion, but still owned 30% equity in the company.
2010s
In 2012,
eBay was charged by the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
with entering into non-solicitation agreements with other technology companies involving their highly skilled employees.
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
Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes la ...
. The spinoff completed on July 18, 2015. eBay's then chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down from that role. Flipkart and eBay entered into a strategic partnership in 2017 under which eBay Inc acquired a 5.44% stake in Flipkart in exchange for its eBay India business for $211 Mn and a $514 Mn cash investment. As part of the partnership, Flipkart decided to use the eBay platform for global outsourcing.
On January 31, 2018, eBay announced that they would replace PayPal as its primary payments provider with Netherlands-based start-up
Adyen
Adyen is a Dutch payment company with status of an acquiring bank that allows businesses to accept e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payments. It is listed on the stock exchange Euronext.
Adyen offers merchants online services for merchan ...
. The transition was set to be completed by 2021, but PayPal would remain an acceptable payment option on the site until further notice.
On September 21, 2018, it was reported that eBay would install a security fence around the perimeter of its San Jose headquarters in response to the
YouTube headquarters shooting
On April 3, 2018, at approximately 12:46 p.m. PDT, a shooting occurred at the headquarters of the video-sharing website YouTube in San Bruno, California. The shooter was identified as 38-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who entered through an ext ...
earlier that year.
On July 31, 2019, the company acquired a 5.59 percent stake in Paytm Mall.
On September 25, 2019, it was announced that
Devin Wenig
Devin Norse Wenig (born 1966) is an American business executive. From July 2015 to September 2019, Wenig was president and CEO of eBay. From April 2008 to August 2011, Wenig was CEO of Thomson Reuters Markets, the financial and media businesses o ...
would be stepping down as eBay's CEO, and that
Scott Schenkel, senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2015, had been appointed as the interim CEO.
2020s
On April 13, 2020, it was announced that
Jamie Iannone
Jamie Iannone is an American businessman, and the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of eBay, since April 27, 2020.
Early life
Iannone earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Stanford Graduat ...
would become the CEO on April 27. On June 15, 2020, eBay stated that that five employees were terminated in September after a law enforcement notification in August because of a possibly criminal case of harassment of journalists perpetrated by some of the terminated employees. Six former employees were charged with Aggressive Cyberstalking.
In July 2020, Adevinta announced to acquire eBay Classifieds Group. The deal closed on June 25.
Corporate affairs
Board of directors
As of April 2022 the board of directors was as follows:
*
Anthony Bates, CEO of
Genesys
* Adriane M. Brown, advisor at
Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures is an American private equity company that centers on the development and licensing of intellectual property. Intellectual Ventures is one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model focuses on ...
, LLC
*
Diana Farrell, CEO of
JPMorgan Chase Institute
*
Logan Green
Logan D. Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, which he founded with John Zimmer in 2012. Lyft grew out of Zimride, a ride share company previously founded by Green and Zimmer in 2007.Chima, ChikodiTicketfly partnership makes music events mor ...
, CEO of
Lyft
Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...
*
Bonnie Hammer
Bonnie Hammer (born 1950) is an American network and studio executive. , her title is vice-chairman, NBCUniversal.
Early life
Born to a Jewish family , Chairman,
NBC Universal
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
* Carol Hayles, Chair of Audit Committee
*
Jamie Iannone
Jamie Iannone is an American businessman, and the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of eBay, since April 27, 2020.
Early life
Iannone earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Stanford Graduat ...
, CEO of eBay.
* Kathleen Mitic, CEO of Sitch, Inc.
* Matt Murphy, CEO of
Marvell Technology Group
*
Paul Pressler
Paul Pressler is the chair of the board of directors of eBay. He was previously CEO of Gap, Inc., chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and a partner at the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
Early life and career
Pressler recei ...
, Partner at
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...
, LLC, Chairman of eBay since 2020
* Mohak Shroff, SVP and Head of Engineering,
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
*
Bob Swan
Robert (Bob) Holmes Swan (born 1959 or 1960) is an American business executive. He was CEO of Intel Corporation from January 2019 until February 15, 2021. He joined Intel as CFO in October 2016 from General Atlantic, after spending years as CF ...
, CEO of
Intel Corporation
* Perry Traquina, CEO of
Wellington Management Company
Wellington Management Company is a private, independent investment management firm with client assets under management totaling over US$1 trillion based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The firm serves as an investment advisor to over ...
; Former board members
*
Pierre Omidyar, director since 1996 and chairman of eBay from May 1996 to May 2015. In 2020, it was announced that he will be leaving the board, however, will still hold the director emeritus title. Additionally, he could still potentially attend board meetings if invited, but won't have the right to vote.
*
Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...
. She was president and CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008.
* Jesse Cohn, Head of U.S. Equity Activism at
Elliott Management Corporation
Elliott Investment Management is an American investment management firm. It is also one of the largest activist funds in the world.
It is the management affiliate of American hedge funds Elliott Associates L.P. and Elliott International Limit ...
. He joined the board in 2019 and left the next year.
*
Thomas J. Tierney, co-founder of the
Bridgespan Group
The Bridgespan Group is a U.S. nonprofit organization in Boston, Massachusetts that provides management consulting to nonprofits and philanthropists. In addition to consulting, Bridgespan makes case studies freely available on its website and publ ...
, Chairman of eBay from 2003 until 2020
*
Fred D. Anderson, former managing director of
Elevation Partners
Elevation Partners was an American private equity firm that invested in intellectual property, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in New York C ...
, director of eBay from 2003 until 2020
Logo
In September 2012, eBay introduced a new logo using a thinner variation of the
Univers
Univers () is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteenth-century German typefaces such a ...
typeface, installed on the website on October 10, 2012. It replaced the thicker Univers logo that had been used since eBay's inception in 1995. An all red eBay logo with the same type set was also introduced to be used temporarily for various holidays.
File:EBay former logo.svg, 1995–2012
File:EBay logo.svg, 2012–present
Profit and transactions
eBay generates revenue by a complex system of fees for services, listing product features, and a ''final value fee'' for sales proceeds by sellers. As of 2019 the US-based eBay.com charges
$0.35 as an insertion fee for a basic listing without any adornments. The final value fee is 10-12% of the total amount of the sale, which is the price of the item plus shipping charges. Reduced final value fees are available to business registered customers. Other eBay websites follow a similar fee structure, but with different cost charges.
Under US law before 2018, a state could not require sellers located outside the state to collect a
sales tax, which made making purchases on eBay more attractive to US buyers. Sellers that operate as a business do follow state tax regulations on eBay transactions.
Since 2018, changes to tax law in the United States force eBay (and other large marketplaces) to collect sales tax on any eBay purchase shipped to certain states.
The company's business strategy includes increasing international trade.
eBay has already expanded to over
two dozen countries, including China and India. Strategic international expansion has failed in Taiwan and Japan, where
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
had a head start, and New Zealand, where
Trade Me
Trade Me is New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds website. Managed by Trade Me Ltd., the site was founded in 1999 by New Zealand entrepreneur Sam Morgan (entrepreneur), Sam Morgan, who sold it to John Fairfax Holdings, Fairfax in ...
is the dominant online auction website. eBay also notably failed in China due to competition from local rival
Taobao
Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba ...
. eBay entered the Chinese market in 2002 and shut down its Chinese site in 2007. In India, eBay's operations came to a halt after it sold off its
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
operations to country's largest ecommerce company
Flipkart
Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categorie ...
, in the latter's $1.4Bn fundraise, where eBay was a participant.
In its Q1 2008 results, total payment volume via PayPal increased 17%, but of the eBay auction site it was up 61%.
For most listing categories, eBay sellers are permitted to offer a variety of payment systems such as Escrow.com,
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
,
Paymate, Propay, and Skrill.
Propay and Skrill were banned effective September 27, 2015, citing low usage.
Escrow.com is eBay's approved
escrow
An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...
site. The transactions processed through Escrow.com largely are in relation to eBay Motors; however, they are not restricted to this type of listing.
eBay runs an affiliate program under the name eBay Partner Network.
eBay affiliate marketers were originally paid a percentage of the eBay seller's transaction fees, with commissions ranging from 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased. In October 2009, eBay changed to an affiliate payout system that it calls Quality Click Pricing, in which affiliates are paid an amount determined by an undisclosed algorithm. The total earnings amount is then divided by the number of clicks the affiliate sent to eBay and is reported as Earnings Per Click, or EPC. In October 2013, ePN launched a new pricing model. The new model is more transparent and is based on category-level base commission rates with bonuses available for referring new and reactivated buyers.
On April 18, 2012, eBay reported a 29% Q1 revenue increase to $3.3 billion compared to their Q1 in 2011. Net income was reported to be at $570 million for the quarter.
For the fiscal year 2017, eBay reported losses of US$1.016 billion, with annual revenue of US$9.567 billion, an increase of 6.6% over the previous fiscal cycle. eBay's shares traded at over $35 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$27.2 billion in October 2018.
Environmental record
On May 8, 2008, eBay announced the opening of its newest building on the company's North Campus in
San Jose, which is the first structure in the city to be built from the ground up to
LEED Gold standards.
The building, the first the company had built in its 13-year existence, uses an array of 3,248 solar panels, spanning , and providing 650 kilo
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s of power to eBay's campus.
The array can supply 15–18% of the company's total energy requirements, reducing the amount of
greenhouse gases that would be produced to create that energy by other means.
SolarCity
SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers ...
, the company responsible for designing the array, estimates that the solar panels installed on eBay's campus will prevent 37 million pounds of
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
from being released into the environment as a result of replaced power production over the next three decades. Creating an equivalent impact to remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would require planting of trees.
The design of the building also incorporates other elements to reduce its impact on the environment. The building is equipped with a lighting system that detects natural ambient light sources and automatically dims artificial lighting to save 39% of the power usually required to light an office building. eBay's newest building also reduces demand on local water supplies by incorporating an eco-friendly irrigation system, and low-flow showerheads and faucets. Even during construction, more than 75% of the waste from construction was recycled. eBay also runs buses between San Francisco and the San Jose campus to reduce the number of commuting vehicles.
In 2014, eBay and several other Oregon businesses signed the Oregon Business Climate Declaration to promote local job growth and slow carbon pollution.
Former subsidiaries and investments
PayPal
On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. Its corporate headquarters were sited in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
,
United States at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. On September 30, 2014, eBay Inc. announced the divestiture of PayPal as an independent company, which was completed on July 20, 2015.
Craigslist
In the summer of 2004, eBay acknowledged that it had acquired 25% of classified listings website
Craigslist
Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.
Craig Newmark began the ...
. Former Craigslist executive Phillip Knowlton was the seller, and he insisted that his former employer was aware of his plans to divest his holdings. Initially, eBay assured Craigslist that eBay would not ask Craigslist to change the way it did business.
In March 2005, eBay launched the classifieds service
Kijiji
Kijiji.ca ( ; , ''village'') is a Canadian online classified advertising website and part of eBay Classifieds Group, which was acquired by Adevinta in 2020. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kij ...
. In April 2008, eBay sued Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment", claiming that in January 2008, Craigslist took actions that "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest by more than 10%".
Craigslist countersued in May 2008 "to remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair competition" that Craigslist claimed was constituted by eBay's actions as a Craigslist shareholder.
In September 2010, Delaware Judge
William Chandler ruled that the actions of Craigslist were unlawful and that the actions were taken by Craigslist founders
Jim Buckmaster
Jim Buckmaster (born August 14, 1962) is an American computer programmer who has been the CEO of Craigslist since 2000.
Early life
Buckmaster was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated with a bachelor's from Virginia Tech and attended medica ...
and
Craig Newmark
Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companie ...
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%.
However, the judge dismissed eBay's objection to a staggered board provision, citing that Craigslist has the right to protect its own trade secrets.
eBay spokesman Michael Jacobson stated "We are very pleased that the court gave eBay what it sought from the lawsuit."
Skype
In October 2005, eBay Inc. acquired
Skype Technologies
Skype Technologies S.A.R.L (also known as Skype Software S.A.R.L, Skype Communications S.A.R.L, Skype Inc., and Skype Limited) is a Luxembourgish telecommunications company headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, whose chief business is th ...
, developer of the
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...
and
Instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
service, significantly expanding its customer base to more than 480 million registered users worldwide. eBay later sold a majority stake in Skype in November 2009, while retaining a minority investment. This eventually led to the sale of the entire Skype business to
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
for $8.5 billion in May 2011.
StubHub
StubHub's acquisition by eBay was announced in January 2007 for a reported $310 million.
According to
CNN Money, 2007 was a very successful year for the company, handling five million individual transactions, more than in the previous six years combined of its history.
Staffing at StubHub had increased to 350 workers by the time of the sale.
Eight months after the acquisition, StubHub reached an exclusive agreement with
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(MLB).
They get a piece of the 25% in commissions StubHub earns on either end of a sale.
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Enter ...
filed a lawsuit against StubHub and eBay in 2007, alleging "intentional interference" with Ticketmaster's contractual rights.
In November 2019, eBay agreed to sell StubHub to
Viagogo
Viagogo, stylized by the company as viagogo, is a multinational ticket exchange and ticket resale brand. It is headquartered in the United States and owned by StubHub Holdings. It was founded in 2006 by Eric Baker, the co-founder of StubHub.
V ...
for $4.05 billion in cash; the sale was completed in February 2020.
Qoo10.jp
In April 2018, eBay acquired the Japanese division of
Qoo10, a market place driven by Giosis and having the 4th GMV in Japan, for a reported $573 million. With the close of the transaction, eBay also has relinquished its investment in Giosis’ non-Japanese businesses. This acquisition expands eBay's footprint in Japan, one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world. eBay made an initial investment in Giosis Pte. Ltd. in 2010. Since then, Giosis has established dynamic marketplace businesses across Asia. eBay's Japan business, including Giosis’ Japan business, will report into Jooman Park, senior vice president of eBay's Asia Pacific region.
Service functionality
eBay is a publicly visible market which has attracted interest from economists, who have used it to analyze aspects of buying and selling behavior, auction formats, etc., comparing them with previous theoretical and empirical findings.
Computer information systems researchers have also shown interest in eBay. Michael Goul, Chairman of the Computer Information Systems department of the
W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, published an academic case based on eBay's
big data management and use in which he discusses how eBay is a data-driven company that processes 50
petabyte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...
s of data a day.
eBay uses a system that allows different departments in the company to check out data from their data mart into sandboxes for analysis. According to Goul, eBay has already experienced significant business successes through its data analytics. eBay employs 5,000 data analysts to enable data-driven decision making.
Third party
In 2006, the accounting software company
Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application ...
launched a web-based donation tracking service called ItsDeductible. The service uses data from eBay to help users assign a
market value to the items they donate.
Visual search
In July 2017, eBay released an image search capability allowing users to find listings on the site that match an item depicted in a photo, using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
GCHQ
UK's
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
has a suite of tools for monitoring target use of eBay, named ELATE.
Items
Millions of
collectibles
A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...
,
decor
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...
,
appliances, computers,
furnishings
]
The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
,
tool, equipment,
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
s, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, or sold daily on eBay. In 2006, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Generally, anything can be auctioned on the site as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.
Services and
intangibles can be sold, too. Large international companies, such as
IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Separate eBay sites such as eBay US and eBay UK allow the users to trade using the local currency. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the
eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program.
In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates.
Numerous government and police agencies around the world now use eBay as well as traditional
auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
s to dispose of seized and confiscated goods.
Controversy has arisen over certain items put up for bid. For instance, in late 1999 a man offered one of his
kidney
The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...
s for auction on eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market for
transplantable human organs.
![PayPal San Jose Headquarters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/PayPal_San_Jose_Headquarters.jpg)
Beginning in August 2007, eBay required listings in "Video Games" and "Health & Beauty" to accept its payment system
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
and sellers could only accept PayPal for payments in the category "Video Games: Consoles".
Starting January 10, 2008, eBay said sellers can only accept PayPal as payment for the categories "Computing > Software", "Consumer Electronics > MP3 Players", "Wholesale & Job Lots > Mobile & Home Phones", and "Business, Office & Industrial > Industrial Supply / MRO".
eBay announced that starting in March 2008, eBay had added to this requirement that all sellers with fewer than 100 feedbacks must offer PayPal and no
merchant account
A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments in multiple ways, typically debit or credit cards. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for t ...
may be used as an alternative.
This is in addition to the requirement that all sellers from the United Kingdom have to offer PayPal.
Further, and as noted below, it was a requirement to offer PayPal on all listings in Australia and the UK. In response to concerns expressed by the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
, however, eBay has since removed the policy on the eBay.com.au website requiring sellers to offer PayPal as a payment option.
![EBayTorontoOffice](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/EBayTorontoOffice.JPG)
On April 24, 2006, eBay opened its new eBay Express site, which was designed to work like a standard Internet shopping site for consumers with United States addresses. Before it closed in 2008, selected eBay items were mirrored on eBay Express, where buyers used a traditional digital shopping cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to eBay members in mid-October 2006, but on January 29, 2008, eBay announced its intention to close the site.
The German version, eBay Express Germany,
was also opened in 2006 and closed in 2008.
At the 2008 eBay Developer's Conference, eBay announced the Selling Manager Applications program (SM Apps).
The program allows approved developers to integrate their applications directly into the eBay.com interface.
The applications created by developers are available for subscription by eBay members who also subscribe to Selling Manager.
eBay maintains a number of specialty sites including the discussion boards, groups, answer center, chat rooms, and reviews and guides. eBay's mobile offerings include
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
alerts, a
WAP
WAP or Wap may refer to:
Music
* "WAP" (song), a 2020 song by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion
Organizations
* Weatherization Assistance Program, for US energy costs
* Western Australia Party, a political party founded in 2016
* Western A ...
site,
Java ME
Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...
clients, and mobile applications for
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...
,
Android OS
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of deve ...
, and Apple iPhone.
The initiative
Choice in eCommerce was founded on May 8, 2013, by several online retailers in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, Germany. The cause was, in the view of the initiative, sales bans and online restrictions by individual manufacturers. The dealers felt cut off from their main sales channel and thus deprived them the opportunity to use online platforms like
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
, eBay, or
Rakuten in a competitive market for the benefit of their customers.
Unusual items
Many unusual items have been placed for sale on eBay, including at least two previously undiscovered species, including the ''
Coelopleurus exquisitus''
sea urchin.
Prohibited or restricted items
In its earliest days, eBay was nearly unregulated. However, as the site grew, it became necessary to restrict or prohibit auctions for various items. Note that some of the restrictions relate to eBay.com (the US site), while other restrictions apply to specific European sites (such as Nazi paraphernalia). Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Generally, if the sale or ownership of an item is regulated or prohibited by one or more states, eBay will not permit its listing. Among the hundred or so banned or restricted categories:
Bidding
Auction-style listings
Bidding on eBay (old or new)'s auction-style listing is called proxy bidding and is essentially equivalent to a
Vickrey auction
A Vickrey auction or sealed-bid second-price auction (SBSPA) is a type of sealed-bid auction. Bidders submit written bids without knowing the bid of the other people in the auction. The highest bidder wins but the price paid is the second-highest ...
(sealed-bid), with the following exceptions.
* The winning bidder pays the second-highest bid plus one bid increment amount (that is, some small predefined amount relative to the bid size), instead of simply the highest bid. However, since the bid increment amounts are relatively insignificant compared to the bid size, they are not considered from a strategic standpoint.
* The highest bidder's bid is sealed, as in a Vickrey auction, but the current winning bid (second highest plus one increment) is displayed throughout the auction to allow
price discovery
In economics and finance, the price discovery process (also called price discovery mechanism) is the process of determining the price of an asset in the marketplace through the interactions of buyers and sellers.
Overview
Price discovery is diff ...
.
* Because eBay's auction-style listings are sealed-bid, it is usually to all bidders' advantage that bids are made only at the very end of the auction (except for an initial minimum bid, that cancels out a "Buy It Now" option, or prevents the seller from ending the listing early). Early bids will usually not increase the bidder's chance of winning the auction, and will often raise the item's final price (winning bid) for the eventual winner.
* eBay also allows sellers to offer a "Buy it Now" price that will end the auction immediately. The Buy It Now price is available until someone bids on the item, or until the reserve price is met. When the Buy It Now option disappears, the auction-style listing proceeds normally.
Seller ratings
In 2008, eBay implemented a system of seller ratings with four categories. Buyers are asked to rate the seller in each of these categories with a score of one to five, with five being the highest rating. Unlike the overall feedback rating, these ratings are anonymous; neither sellers nor other users learn how individual buyers rated the seller. The listings of sellers with a rating of 4.3 or below in any of the four rating categories appear lower in search results. Power Sellers are required to have scores in each category above 4.5.
In a reversal of roles, on January 24, 2010, Auctionbytes.com held an open survey in which sellers could rate eBay, as well as competing auction and marketplace sites.
In the survey, users were asked to rank 15 sites based on five criteria: profitability, customer service, communication, ease of use, and recommendation.
eBay was ranked 13th,
after other large sites such as
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
and
Craigslist
Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.
Craig Newmark began the ...
, as well as lesser-known selling sites such as
Atomic Mall,
eCRATER, and
Ruby Lane. In individual category rankings, eBay was rated the worst of all the 15 sites on customer service and communication, and average on ease of use. Some respondents stated they would have given eBay a rating of 10, three to five years ago. eBay was rated twelfth out of fifteen in the Recommended Selling Venue category.
Charity auctions
Using
MissionFish Founded in 1999, MissionFish is the partner charity of eBay, which runs auction and shopping websites in 30 countries. Through MissionFish, eBay users are able to donate to registered nonprofit organisations when they buy and sell through the eBay.c ...
as an arbiter, eBay allows sellers to donate a portion of their auction proceeds to a charity of the seller's choice. The program is called eBay Giving Works in the US, and eBay for Charity in the UK. eBay provides a partial refund of seller fees for items sold through charity auctions.
As of March 4, 2010, $154 million has been raised for US nonprofits by the eBay Community since eBay Giving Works began in 2003.
Some high-profile charity auctions have been advertised on the eBay home page. As of June 2010, the highest successful bid on a single item for charity was for the annual "Power Lunch" with investor
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
at the famous
Smith & Wollensky
Smith & Wollensky is the name of several high-end American steakhouses, with locations in New York, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, Miami Beach, Las Vegas, London, and most recently, Taipei. The first Smith and Wollensky steakhouse was founded ...
Steakhouse in New York. The winning bid was $2.63 million with all of the proceeds going to the
Glide Foundation
The Glide Foundation is a charity organization that helps the homeless, based in San Francisco, California, associated with devout Methodist Lizzie Glide and the Glide Church.
History
Glide and the foundation bought the Hotel Californian two bl ...
. The winning bidder was not made public, but was able to bring up to seven friends to the lunch. In 2012, a higher bid, of $3.46 million, also going to the Glide Foundation, won a lunch with Buffet. In 2016 an anonymous bidder won a $3.45 million lunch with Warren Buffett and the money raised from the auction was given to Glide Foundation.
The previous highest successful bid on a single item for charity was for a letter
sent to Mark P. Mays, CEO of
Clear Channel (parent company of
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. I ...
the production company that produces ''
The Rush Limbaugh Show
''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' is an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. Since its nationally syndicated premiere in 1988, ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' became the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States. At its ...
'' and ''
Glenn Beck Program
''Glenn'' (previously titled ''The Glenn Beck Program'') is a news talk and political opinion show on TheBlaze hosted by Glenn Beck. It is produced and recorded at TheBlaze studios in Dallas, TX. The show originally ran on CNN Headline News fr ...
'') by Senator
Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
and forty other
Democratic senators, complaining about comments made by conservative talk show host
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
. The winning bid was $2,100,100, with all of the proceeds going to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, benefiting the education of children of men and women who have died serving in the armed forces. The winning bid was matched by Limbaugh in his largest charity donation to date.
In 2007, eBay Canada partnered with Montreal-based digital branding agency CloudRaker to develop a campaign to raise money for Sainte-Justine children's hospital in Montreal. They aligned themselves with Internet phenomenon
Têtes à claques to create an eBay auction based on popular T-A-C character Uncle Tom, an infomercial host who pitches absurd products. eBay and CloudRaker reproduced Uncle Tom's imaginary products, The Body Toner Fly Swatter, The Willi Waller Potato Peeler, and the LCD Shovel and sold them online. In six weeks, they raised $15,000 for Hôpital St-Justine with one fly swatter, one potato peeler, and one shovel, a world record. The Body Toner Fly Swatter sold for $8,600, the Willi Waller Potato Peeler sold for $3,550, and the LCD Shovel sold for $2,146.21.
Shipping
During auction setup, eBay provides shipping-method choices to sellers: ordinary mail,
express mail
Express mail is an expedited mail delivery service for which the customer pays a premium for faster delivery. Express mail is a service for domestic and international mail, and is in most nations governed by the country's own postal administration ...
, and/or courier service. The seller may choose to offer only one shipping method to buyers, or the seller may offer buyers a choice of options.
Very-low-value items shipped directly from China are sometimes shipped by
surface mail
Surface mail, also known as sea mail, is mail that is transported by land and sea (along the ''surface'' of the earth), rather than by air, as in airmail. Surface mail is significantly less expensive but slower than airmail, and thus is preferred ...
(seamail), which is inexpensive but takes one to two months. If the buyer is in a hurry, he or she might be able to pay an extra fee to upgrade to second-class
Surface Air Lifted Surface Air Lifted (SAL) is a postal service used to send international mail items. Thirty-nine postal authorities provide this service. It is a cost-effective international mail. At first SAL mail is processed and transported by surface in the ...
shipping or to first-class
airmail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be t ...
shipping.
Since 2012, eBay has been enlisting sellers into its "Global Shipping Program". If a seller uses the program, non-domestic buyers pay a fee to
Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...
. The seller sends the item to a Pitney Bowes facility in the US (or the UK), which then forwards it to the buyer, taking care of all international shipping requirements. The program is claimed to enhance the product selection available to international buyers.
In March 2022, eBay stopped shipping in Russia and Ukraine due to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
.
Criticisms and controversies
Common eBay criticisms involve concerns over fraud, forgeries and intellectual property violations in auction items. There are also issues of how negative feedback after an auction can offset the benefits of using eBay as a trading platform. eBay has been criticized for not paying UK taxes: the ''Sunday Times'' reported in October 2012 that eBay paid only £1.2m in tax on sales of over £800m.
2014 security breach
On May 21, 2014, the company revealed that the consumer database of usernames, passwords, phone numbers, and physical addresses had been breached between late February and early March. Users were advised to change their passwords; to expedite this, a "change password" feature was added to profiles of users who had not yet done so. The
Syrian Electronic Army
The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA; ar, الجيش السوري الإلكتروني) is a group of computer hackers which first surfaced online in 2011 to support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Using spamming, website defac ...
took responsibility for the attack. The SEA said that even though the hack revealed millions of users' banking details to them, they would not misuse the data. They had replaced the front pages of the websites with their own logo, called "
Defacing" in technical terms. The hack caused eBay's share price to crash in intra-day trade as a result of the breach of security.
Stalking scandal
A
cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...
and harassment campaign conducted in 2019 against an online newsletter led to charges made public in 2020 against seven members of eBay's global security team, as well as arrests of two of those charged. Wenig, the company's CEO at the time of the harassment campaign, has not been charged.
See also
*
Alibaba Group, Chinese e-commerce company
* ''
eBay v. Bidder's Edge''
* ''
Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay Inc.''
*
Shopping neutral
*
ShopWorn
References
External links
*
ebay - YouTube
{{Authority control, state=expanded
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Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
National Medal of Technology recipients
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Webby Award winners
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