eBay

The Phenomenon that is Ebay:

A Brief History of Ebay:

What we now know as eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar's in his San Jose living room back in September 1995. It was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals.

In 1998, Pierre and his cofounder Jeff Skoll brought in Meg Whitman to sustain the success. Meg had studied at the Harvard Business School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasbro.

Meg culled her senior staff from companies such as Pepsi co and Disney, created an experienced management team with an average of 20 years of business experience and built a strong vision for the company -- that eBay is a company that's in the business of connecting people, not selling them things.

eBay quickly shed the image of only auctioning collectibles and moved into an array of upscale markets where the average sale price (ASP) is higher. ASP is a key metric in determining eBay's transaction fees, so increasing the ASP became an important item. By forging partnerships with name brands such as GM, Disney and Sun, eBay has managed to do exactly that. Sun has sold $10 million worth of equipment and it now lists between 20 and 150 items per day.

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~magnus/ief248a/eBay/history.html

eBay is today one of the leading companies in the world and in my opinion a fantastic creation. It is such an easy way to look for different items from antiques to an item that is no longer in production. I myself have recently succumb to its uses and benefits over the many negatives that people feel surround eBay and buying items that may have been used and not being able to see and touch the item before they buy it.

For many years I have been aware of eBay but was afraid to buy on line. I was put off by the air of uncertainty surrounding the quality of the item you were buying, it still in working condition, is it still working and are you buying what you think you are buying. One of my main fears was that the item may never arrive in the post and I would have no way of getting my money back....

Many, many times I logged on to eBay and had a look at what they had and what I wanted to buy but I wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to purchase. But just as recently as last Christmas when I was looking for a present for my girlfriend and I couldn’t find it anywhere else so I eventually was talked into trying it by a friend who had used the sight on many different occasions with positive results.

Since this day I have bought several presents and even bought new parts for my damaged iPhone, including new parts that I just ordered at the start of the week!!

I feel websites such as eBay and even sites as Amazon are the way forward and that we shouldn’t be afraid of them with such payment systems as Pay-Pal in place to ensure customer security and safety.

Viva eBay(“,