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A dark chapter in the history of the online platform: According to researchers, an unpleasant couple received live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, a book about the death of their spouse, and a preserved pig fetus. Image: keystone
25 years of eBay: how the online pioneer became a vengeful loser
The online auction platform can look back on an eventful history. These are some of the most exciting and worst events.
As a pioneer of e-commerce, eBay belongs to the old guard in the online business. The group experienced a steep climb, but that was a long time ago. For its 25th anniversary, eBay is swinging in the shadow of Amazon and Alibaba and is no longer one of the top tech companies.
At first there was a broken laser pointer
Not many internet companies have a quarter of a century under their belt, which is why eBay is one of the veterans of the online age. Few ecommerce companies have seen so much competition come and go. But the online trading platform itself has also been overshadowed by bigger rivals like Amazon and Alibaba in recent years. EBay celebrated its 25th anniversary on Thursday, but it wasn’t about expansion and prosperity. Recently there was even a tangible scandal.
At first there was a broken laser pointer. That was the article that was posted on the AuctionWeb website on September 3, 1995 by then-28-year-old eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
Founder of the Pierre Omidyar company, 1995. image: ebay
A few days later, the first hammer price was $ 14.83. The perplexed Omidyar asked the bidder to be sure if he knew he had just bought a faulty device. But it all fitted: the buyer was a collector of broken laser pointers.
At first, Omidyar practically ran the business on his own, then in 1996 Chris Agarpao, who is still an employee of the group, hired the first employee.
But it didn’t really start until 1997 when the company was renamed eBay and the rating system for buyers and sellers was introduced.
The dotcom bubble
In March 1998, Meg Whitman was hired as CEO, which shaped the rise of the company. The brilliant initial public offering on the Nasdaq followed in September, turning Omidyar suddenly into a billionaire.
As was customary before the dot-com bubble burst, modest numbers were enough to impress investors. In the six months prior to its IPO, eBay had made just $ 348,000 in sales of $ 14.9 million. Some analysts saw some now-forgotten e-commerce rivals like Onstar as better deals.
Meanwhile, Omidyar has focused on the role of patron and finances, among other things, the investigative website “The Intercept”, famous for Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and the NSA scandal.
More value than Amazon
In Germany, eBay also laid the foundation for the Samwer brothers’ wealth: Omidyar bought the eBay clone they had founded about six months earlier in 1999 for more than $ 50 million. Winged of. The Germans discovered eBay in California and implemented the idea in Germany faster than the original was able to enter the market. eBay then reached ten million registered members worldwide.
From today’s perspective, it’s hard to believe, but there were times when investors rated eBay significantly higher than the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon. Meanwhile, eBay looks like a dwarf with a market value of nearly $ 40 billion compared to Amazon at $ 1.6 trillion.
This is also one of the reasons why the party atmosphere on the 25th birthday should have been limited. Competitors like Amazon and Alibaba They have long since abandoned the old Internet auction company, which over the years has become a normal online trading platform.
PayPal is breaking up
EBay is seeing a slight rebound as the online shopping boom during the Corona crisis is bringing strong business growth. But overall, at least since the spin-off of ex-paid, high-growth subsidiary Paypal five years ago, it has become clear that eBay is no longer in the Internet Business Champions League.
Former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, left, and founder Elon Musk pose in 2000 at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California. eBay Inc. announced in 2002 that it would take over the fintech company for more than $ 1.3 billion in stock. Bild: AP
In fact, the signs are still being modernized. EBay recently sold its classifieds division, which includes the German website mobile.de, to the Norwegian online marketplace Adevinta for $ 9.2 billion.
Blogger tyrannisiert
An issue where former employees allegedly intimidated bloggers who criticized the company recently turned really nasty and potentially damaging to eBay’s reputation. The prosecution’s indictment says in part like the script of a bad horror movie. The six former eBay employees are said to have sent live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a pig mask to intimidate the authors of an online newsletter on the subject of e-commerce.
The defendants are now threatened with years in prison and heavy fines. eBay immediately noted in a statement that the charges were not directed against the company itself or current employees. However, it is clear from the court documents that the scandal spread to the executive floor. While it’s unclear to what extent the management itself was a driving force behind the actions, the complaint clearly links two members of eBay’s management team at the time.
One of them is the former head of the communications department, who was promptly fired in the course of the affair. The other is said to be explosively former CEO Devin Wenig, who abruptly resigned in September 2019.
An internal investigation into the incidents revealed that Wenig’s communication was inappropriate, eBay said after the scandal was made public in June. However, there is no evidence of prior knowledge or authorization of the bullying.
puff up
(dsc / sda / awp / dpa)
