EBay Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
eBay is a very successful online auction website, at which people from all around the world buy and sell goods and services.
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2 Items and services 3 Profit and transactions 4 Acquisitions 5 Caveat emptor 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 External links |
eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar as "AuctionWeb", part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. The site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. He had tried to register the domain name "EchoBay.com" but found it already taken, so he shortened it to his second choice, "eBay.com". eBay is headquartered in San Jose, California. Meg Whitman has served as eBay's president and CEO since March 1998.
Millions of collectibles, knickknacks, doodads, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, etc. are listed, bought and sold daily. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide, proving that if one has a big enough market, one will find someone willing to buy anything. A recent search of eBay uncovered thousands of passe beanie babies and hundreds of vintage Kewpie Dolls. It is fair to say that eBay has revolutionized the collectibles market by bringing together buyers and sellers internationally in a huge, never-ending yard sale and auction. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. Regional searches of the DB make shipping slighly more rapid or cheaper. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program.
eBay generates revenue from sellers, who pay a 1.25% to 5.25% premium on the final bid price of each item, a fee based on the starting price, and from advertising. It does not handle the goods, nor does it transact the buyer-seller payment, except through its subsidiary PayPal. Instead, much like newspaper want-ads, sellers rely on the buyer's good faith to make payment, and buyers rely on the sellers' good faith to actually deliver the goods intact. To encourage fidelity, eBay maintains, rates and publicly displays the post-transaction feedback from all users, whether they buy or sell. This way, the buyer is encouraged to examine the sellers' feedback profile before bidding to rate their trustworthiness. Sellers with high ratings generally have more bids and garner higher bids.
This is an Article on EBay. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About EBay About
Items and services
Profit and transactions
Acquisitions
Caveat emptor
See also
Further reading
(Hardcover, 336 pages)
External links