eBay

eBay Inc. is a global online marketplace founded by American entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Auctions constitute the bulk of eBay sales, though fixed-price sales also comprise a significant share of transactions. The company, which caters to individuals and small businesses, is one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies and employed about 12,300 people worldwide as of 2025. eBay is headquartered in San Jose, California.

How eBay works

eBay relies on its users to self-regulate the trading community through a feedback system that lets buyers rate sellers on transactions. Formerly, sellers also could leave negative feedback on buyers, but this feature was removed in 2008.

In theory, the eBay system ensures that unscrupulous vendors are exposed and lose the trust enjoyed by reputable sellers. In practice, some vendors have received poor ratings through no fault of their own (for example, because of problems with package deliveries). Simultaneously, other vendors have garnered good ratings for a short period before setting up cybercrime scams to defraud customers.

eBay offers educational resources for best-practice trading to help sellers get the ratings they deserve. eBay also lists categories of potentially prohibited items. The company sanctions would-be traffickers in goods that may be illegal or offensive.

Global reach

A key factor in eBay’s growth has been its implementation of procedures to promote safe, transparent trading that’s accessible nearly anywhere to anyone. Customers can participate in websites set up within their own country or use one of the company’s international sites.

There are eBay websites for both the U.S. and Canadian markets, most European countries, and several countries in Asia. Latin American websites are operated in association with Mercado Libre, an e-commerce provider that runs similar online auction operations.

1990s: Early growth

Originally named AuctionWeb, eBay started as something like a giant garage sale. The first item it sold, in 1995, was a broken laser pointer for the price of $14.83. eBay’s early days coincided with the Beanie Baby craze, with collectors flocking to the site to buy and sell the popular plush toys.

In 1998, eBay went public, with shares listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol EBAY. Also in 1998, the eBay Foundation, the company’s charitable arm, was established to support community initiatives.

eBay weathered the dot-com bust of the early 2000s in part because it relied on transaction fees rather than advertising revenue. The company also used the tumultuous time to grow, adding new product features and expanding internationally.

2000–2020: Acquisitions and divestitures

eBay kicked off a long acquisition spree in 2002 with its purchase of the digital payments company PayPal, which many eBay users were already using to complete transactions.

In 2004, eBay acquired a 25% minority stake in Craigslist, a classified advertising website, in an effort to collaborate and share expertise and resources. That same year, it acquired the online rental listings website Rent.com. In 2005, it purchased the comparison-shopping site Shopping.com as well as Gumtree, a global classified advertising website. These acquisitions were intended to expand eBay’s reach into additional e-commerce markets.

In 2005, eBay expanded beyond e-commerce with its acquisition of the Internet communications company Skype; two years later, it acquired StubHub, an online marketplace for entertainment event tickets.

Most of eBay’s acquisitions were later divested:

• Skype was sold in 2009 at a loss to private investors. (In 2011, Microsoft (MSFT) acquired Skype in a deal worth $8.5 billion.)
• Rent.com was sold in 2012 to the advertising and media company Primedia.
• PayPal was spun off into an independent company in 2015.
• Also in 2015, eBay divested its minority stake in Craigslist.
• Gumtree was sold in 2020 to Adevinta, a Norway-based online secondhand marketplace.
• Also in 2020, the company sold StubHub to the multinational ticket exchange platform Viagogo.

2020s: Strategy and developments

Tech innovation

In the early 2020s, eBay expanded into digital collectibles, beginning with support for sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2021. The following year, it acquired KnownOrigin, an NFT marketplace, and launched a series of eco-conscious NFTs in partnership with OneOf.

In 2023, eBay began integrating artificial intelligence, including a feature that automatically generated listing details based on a product photo uploaded by the seller.

GameStop takeover bid

In May 2026, eBay confirmed that it had received an unsolicited, nonbinding takeover offer from GameStop, the video game retailer led by Ryan Cohen. The cash-and-stock proposal valued eBay at about $55.5 billion, or $125 a share. GameStop, which said it had built a roughly 5% stake in eBay, proposed combining eBay’s online marketplace with GameStop’s store network, including using its locations for shipping, authentication, and live-commerce services.

Days later, eBay rejected the proposal, calling it “neither credible nor attractive” after reviewing the offer with its legal and financial advisors. The company cited concerns about financing, debt, and the overall structure of the proposed transaction.

Controversies and criticism

eBay has faced a range of legal and operational challenges related to its marketplace model. European manufacturers and luxury brands have sued the company over the sale of counterfeit goods on its platform, arguing that eBay did not do enough to prevent such transactions. In 2008, a French court ordered eBay to pay damages in one such case. In 2014, eBay disclosed a data breach affecting about 145 million users. Hackers accessed personal information including passwords, email addresses, and mailing addresses, raising concerns about the company’s data security practices. The platform has also contended with fraudulent activity such as shill bidding, in which sellers place bids on their own items to inflate prices. eBay has taken steps to address such practices, including legal action in some cases.

Corporate responsibility

eBay’s corporate responsibility efforts include philanthropic and policy initiatives through the eBay Foundation and through advocacy efforts such as eBay Main Street, which focuses on issues affecting small businesses and e-commerce. The company joined the United Nations Global Compact in 2006, committing to principles related to human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.