Ebay Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ebay - Research Paper Example The sellers have the choice of accepting bids for their products. They can also use the Buy It Now option that provides the buyers with the opportunity to buy the product at a fixed price right away. Bidding in the online auction system starts at a price established by the seller and remains on the eBay for some days so that the buyers can place their bids. At the end of the listing, the buyer who has the maximum number of bids wins. On the other hand, when the Buy It Now option is used, the first buyer who is volunteering to pay the price established by the seller receives the item. The online auction website was established in the year 1995 as the AuctionWeb. Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian computer programmer born in France founded AuctionWeb on 3 September 1995 in San Jose, California (â€Å"The history of†). The first employee was recruited by eBay in the year 1996. eBay entered its first deal of third-party licensing in November 1996 with Electronic Travel Auction. It made use of the SmartMarket Technology to sell travel products and tickets of planes. In January 1997, over 2000000 auctions were hosted by eBay in comparison to 250000 that were hosted during the year 1996. In September 1997, the company’s name was officially changed from AuctionWeb to eBay after it received $6.7m from Benchmark Capital. â€Å"To save money, Omidyar linked the new Web site with an existing site he had created for his consulting and technology business, Echo Bay Technology Group. The Web address for that business was ebay.com† (Gitlin). The number of eBay†™s employees increased to 20 by March 1998 along with a population of half a million users. Its revenues in the US reached $4.7m (â€Å"The history of†). In 21 September 1998, eBay went floated over the stock exchange that resulted in the making of the founders of the company, billionaires. On the very first day of trading, the price of target shares of eBay increased from $18 to $53.50. eBay