nasdaq 100 component s & p 500 component founded september 3 1995 ; 21 years ago 1995 09 03 as auctionweb headquarters 2145 hamilton avenue san jose ca 95125 united states coordinates 37 17 44 n 121 55 39 w 37.295448 n 121.927453 w 37.295448 ; 121.927453 coordinates 37 17 44 n 121 55 39 w 37.295448 n 121.927453 w 37.295448 ; 121.927453 founder s pierre omidyar key people thomas j. tierney chairman devin wenig ceo industry internet services online shopping revenue us 8.59 billion 2015 1 operating income us 2.19 billion 2015 1 net income us 1.72 billion 2015 1 total assets us 17.78 billion 2015 1 total equity us 6.57 billion 2015 1 employees 34 600 2015 2 subsidiaries ebayclassifieds kijiji ibazar gittigidiyor gumtree stubhub half.com slogan s world s online marketplace . connecting buyers and sellers globally . whatever it is you can get it on ebay . buy it sell it love it buy it new buy it now when it s on your mind it s on ebay website ebay.com written in java 3 ipv6 support no alexa rank 27 june 2016 update 4 type of site e commerce online auction hosting registration guest checkout available on site registration required to sell available in multilingual native client s on ios watchos android windows windows phone ebay inc. i be b ay ; is an american multinational corporation and e commerce company providing consumer to consumer and business to consumer sales services via the internet . it is headquartered in san jose california . ebay was founded by pierre omidyar in 1995 and became a notable success story of the dot com bubble . today it is a multibillion dollar business with operations localized in over 30 countries . 5 the company manages ebay.com an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide . in addition to its auction style sales the website has since expanded to include buy it now shopping ; shopping by upc isbn or other kind of sku via half.com ; online classified advertisements via kijiji or ebay classifieds ; online event ticket trading via stubhub ; and other services . it previously offered online money transfers via paypal 6 which was a wholly owned subsidiary of ebay from 2002 until 2015 . the website is free to use for buyers but sellers are charged fees for listing items and again when those items are sold . 7 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 2000s 2 corporate affairs 2.1 board of directors 2.2 logo 2.3 profit and transactions 2.4 environmental record 2.5 acquisitions 2.5.1 stubhub 2.5.2 skype 2.5.3 craigslist 2.5.4 gittigidiyor 2.5.5 paypal 2.5.6 corrigon 3 use for data analysis 3.1 third party 3.2 gchq 3.3 items 3.3.1 unusual items 3.3.2 prohibited or restricted items 3.4 bidding 3.4.1 auction style listings 3.4.2 seller ratings 3.4.3 charity auctions 3.5 shipping 4 controversy and criticism 4.1 2014 security breach 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history ebay headquarters in san jose california early years the auctionweb was founded in california on september 3 1995 by french born iranian american computer programmer pierre omidyar born june 21 1967 as part of a larger personal site . 8 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 . in his responding email the buyer explained i m a collector of broken laser pointers . 9 the frequently repeated story that ebay was founded to help omidyar s fianc e trade pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media which were not interested in the company s previous explanation about wanting to create a perfect market . 10 this was revealed in adam cohen s book the perfect store 2002 8 and confirmed by ebay . 10 reportedly ebay was simply a side hobby for omidyar until his internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a business account due to the high volume of traffic to his website . the resulting price increase from 30 month to 250 forced him to start charging those who used ebay and was not met with any animosity . citation needed it resulted in the hiring of chris agarpao as ebay s first employee to handle the number of checks coming in for fees . citation needed pierre omidyar founder and chairman of ebay jeffrey skoll was hired as the first president of the company in early 1996 . in november 1996 ebay 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 ; in january 1997 the site hosted 2 000 000 auctions compared with 250 000 during the whole of 1996 . 11 the company officially changed the name of its service from auctionweb to ebay in september 1997 . originally the site belonged to echo bay technology group omidyar s consulting firm . omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com but found it already taken by the echo bay mines a gold mining company 12 so he shortened it to his second choice ebay.com . 13 in 1997 the company received 6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firm benchmark capital . 14 meg whitman was hired as ebay president and ceo in march 1998 . at the time the company had 30 employees 15 half a million users and revenues of 4.7 million in the united states . citation needed ebay went public on september 21 1998 16 and both omidyar and skoll became instant billionaires . ebay s target share price of 18 was all but ignored as the price went to 53.50 on the first day of trading . 17 2000s as the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item business grew quickly . 9 in february 2002 the company purchased ibazar a similar european auction web site founded in 1998 citation needed and then bought paypal on october 3 2002 . 18 by early 2008 the company had expanded worldwide counted hundreds of millions of registered users 15 000 employees and revenues of almost 7.7 billion . 19 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 was selected to become president and ceo . 20 whitman remained on the board of directors and continued to advise donahoe through 2008 . in late 2009 ebay completed the sale of skype for 2.75 billion but will still own 30 % equity in the company . 21 in 2012 ebay was charged by the united states department of justice with entering into non solicitation agreements with other technology companies involving their highly skilled employees . 22 on september 30 2014 ebay announced it would spinoff paypal into a separate publicly traded company a demand made nine months prior by activist hedge fund magnate carl icahn . the spinoff completed on july 18 2015 . ebay s then chief executive john donahoe stepped down from that role . 23 24 25 corporate affairs board of directors as of november 2014 the board of directors was as follows 26 devin wenig new ebay ceo and president since 2015 fred d. anderson former managing director of elevation partners director of ebay since july 2003 edward w. barnholt former president and ceo of agilent technologies director of ebay since april 2005 scott cook founder of intuit director of ebay since june 1998 john donahoe ebay s former president and ceo since march 2008 former director of ebay since january 2008 david dorman non executive chairman of motorola director of ebay since june 2014 william clay ford jr. executive chairman of ford motor company director of ebay since july 2005 kathleen c. mitic founder and ceo of sitch inc director of ebay since september 2011 david m. moffett former ceo of freddie mac director of ebay since july 2007 pierre omidyar director and chairman of ebay since its incorporation in may 1996 richard t. schlosberg former president and ceo of the david and lucile packard foundation director of ebay since march 2004 thomas j. tierney co founder of the bridgespan group director of ebay since march 2003 logo in september 2012 ebay introduced a new logo set in univers 27 installed on the website on october 10 2012 . 1995 2012 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 november 2012 the u.s. based ebay.com charges 0.10 to 2 based on the opening or reserve price as an insertion fee for a basic auction style listing without any adornments . the final value fee amounts to 10 % of the total amount of the sale which is the price of the item plus shipping charges . 28 fixed price listings have an insertion fee of 0.30 and the final value fee varies based on category and total amount of the sale e.g. 13 % for dvds & movies up to 50 . 29 the uk based ebay.co.uk 30 takes from 0.15 to a maximum rate of 3 per 100 for an ordinary listing and up to 10 % of the final price . reduced final value fees are available to business registered customers . under u.s. law a state can not require sellers located outside the state to collect a sales tax making purchases more attractive to buyers . although some state laws require resident purchasers to pay use tax on out of state purchases it is not a common practice . citation needed however sellers that operate as a business do follow state tax regulations on ebay transactions . 31 32 however value added tax vat the eu countries sales tax is different . ebay requires sellers to include the vat element in their listing price and not as an add on and thus profits by collecting fees based not only on the sale price ex vat but also on the vat . 33 in a similar manner ebay also charges its final value fees on all shipping charges . the company s business strategy includes increasing international trade . 34 35 ebay has already expanded to over two dozen countries including china and india . strategic international expansion has failed in taiwan and japan where yahoo had a head start and new zealand where trade me is the dominant online auction website . ebay also notably failed in china due to competition from local rival taobao . 36 ebay entered the chinese market in 2002 and shut down its chinese site in 2007 . 37 in its q1 2008 results total payment volume via paypal increased 17 % but off the ebay auction site it was up 61 % . 38 for most listing categories ebay sellers are permitted to offer a variety of payment systems such as escrow.com 39 paypal paymate propay and skrill . 40 propay and skrill were banned effective september 27 2015 citing low usage . 41 escrow.com is ebay s approved escrow site . the transactions processed through escrow.com largely are in relation to ebay motors ; however they are not restricted to this type of listing . 39 ebay runs an affiliate program under the name ebay partner network . 42 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