The democratization of the marketplace
IDEA No 38
WEB AUCTION
There are a handful of websites that define Web culture. eBay is one of them. The peer-to-peer auction site embodies the spirit of the Web, but, more than that, it represents a shift in global consumerism.
In September 1995, Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb, the first incarnation of eBay. When a broken laser pointer was bought for $14.83, Omidyar contacted the buyer to make sure he knew it didn’t work. The buyer explained, ‘I’m a collector of broken laser pointers’. Omidyar realized that given a large enough audience, there was a buyer for almost anything.
Omidyar moved the site from his personal account to its own domain and started charging sellers commission. In 1996, the site ...
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