Iranian American born economist
Pierre Omidyar is best known as the founder and chairman of eBay, the online
auction website. Omidyar graduated from Tufts University in 1988 with a degree
in computer science and worked for both Macintosh and Apple before founding
eBay.
Unlike many other high-tech
entrepreneurs, Omidyar didn't set out to become an Internet tycoon. Born in
Paris, he moved to Maryland as a child when his father accepted a residency at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. He wrote his first
computer program at the tender age of 14.
While working for Apple subsidiary Claris, where he helped to start a software company in 1991 called Ink Development Corp, whereby the company later changed its name to eShop and was purchased by Microsoft in 1996.
While working for Apple subsidiary Claris, where he helped to start a software company in 1991 called Ink Development Corp, whereby the company later changed its name to eShop and was purchased by Microsoft in 1996.
Wondering how did all happen? Well on
one fine day he posted a page called Auction Web on his personal Web site
letting people list items for auction, to his amazement the site
attracted so many buyers and sellers that he soon had to set up a separate site
devoted to auctions, which he called eBay. By charging certain amount to
sellers for posting their auction notice and taking a small percentage of the
sale, the company eventually made money simply by setting up a place for buyers
and sellers to meet.
In May 1998, Omidyar was named
eBay's chairman and eBay's serviceswas extended through new site launches which
includes country like Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
This was enough business to attract the attention of e-commerce giant
Amazon.com, which started running its own auctions in 1999. Smaller auction
sites have joined the fray, who started offering auctions on surplus products.
So successful did the online auction site become that some industry observers
predicted that Internet auctions would become the dominant e-commerce model in
the future.
What some people will even do
without having E-bay since they are busy to go on shopping or even purchasing
stuff, Internet made they life easy in this modern world or some would say how
lazy people have become with this E-bay.
The E-bay song for those who is still having trouble getting the big picture of E-bay
Reference
- omidyar.com website, pierre-omidyar [Online], Retrieved 14th March 2012
- crunchbase.com website, pierre-omidyar [Online], Retrieved 14th March 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment