--- title: eBay at 20: The Small-Scale Story Behind Its Big Bucks description: The site that became eBay was founded 20 years ago, on Sept. 3, 1995 canonical: https://time.com/4013672/ebay-founded-story/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-03T11:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:15.726Z article:section: History og:title: eBay at 20: The Small-Scale Story Behind Its Big Bucks og:description: The site that became eBay was founded 20 years ago, on Sept. 3, 1995 og:url: https://time.com/4013672/ebay-founded-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a303dac622393/69886141524fc052d6df4443/ebay.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Chairman and founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO Meg Whitman of EBay.com og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: eBay at 20: The Small-Scale Story Behind Its Big Bucks twitter:description: The site that became eBay was founded 20 years ago, on Sept. 3, 1995 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a303dac622393/69886141524fc052d6df4443/ebay.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Small-Scale Story Behind eBay's Big Bucks > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Numbers Behind eBay [Watch (HLS stream): Numbers Behind eBay](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/b4CQxAAH.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2015-08-28. Numbers Behind ebay_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Chairman and founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO Meg Whitman of EBay.com, the online auction service, in California on June 15, 1998. Chairman and founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO Meg Whitman of EBay.com, the online auction service, in California on June 15, 1998. James D. Wilson—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2015 11:00 AM UTC The origin story of eBay—which was founded 20 years ago, as AuctionWeb, on Sept. 3, 1995–is fairly well-known: other tech giants have their garages, eBay has its Pez dispenser. Or, rather, founder Pierre Omidyar’s then-fiancée _didn’t_ have a Pez dispenser. It was her desire to more easily expand her collection that inspired Omidyar to create a way for her to arrange sales and purchases online. But, as any number of start-ups have found, a good idea and good code do not a profitable business make. And the reason for eBay’s transition from small project to a functioning company is much less cute than the Pez story. Omidyar was running the business at home, and his Internet provider started to charge him more, as TIME explained in a 1999 story about the rise in online auctions: --- > “” --- As of May 2015, [_Forbes_](http://www.forbes.com/companies/ebay/) placed eBay’s market value at nearly $69 billion. **_Read more from 1999, here in the TIME Vault:_** [The Attic of E](http://time.com/vault/issue/1999-12-27/page/76/) ### See The 7 Most Important Tech CEOs You Wouldn't Recognize  Jack Ma, founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, stepped down as that firm's CEO in 2013\. But he's still the company's most public face, and after Alibaba's September IPO, China's single richest man. Scott Eells—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Larry Ellison stunned the tech world in September by announcing he's stepping down as CEO of Oracle, the enterprise software company he co-founded in 1977\. Since Oracle doesn't sell products to the public like Apple or Microsoft, Ellison's a little less-known outside Silicon Valley: But he's a hugely important figure, having heavily influenced Steve Jobs and a host of other tech leaders. Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Tony Hsieh, CEO of shoe-tailer Zappos.com, is a controversial figure in the world of tech chief officers. He's pouring money into Zappos' corporate home of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is welcome by some locals but spurned by others. Still, Zappos is known for being a very fun and very different place to work, thanks in part to Hsieh setting those qualities up as priorities for the company. Noah Berger—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Satya Nadella just took over the reins at Microsoft earlier this year from now-Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, but he's already making his presence known through sizable layoffs and simultaneous acquisitions. Nadella's Microsoft has let go of nearly 15,000 employees this year — a chunk of whom were made redundant when Microsoft closed an approximately $7.2 billion deal for Nokia's device wing. Also on Microsoft's tab? $2.5 billion for the Swedish gaming company behind top-hit Minecraft. Microsoft/Corbis  Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner, formerly a longtime Yahoo employee, has grown the "Facebook For Professionals'" user base and revenue exponentially since coming becoming CEO in 2009\. He's got quite the fan base, too: His workers, 100% of whom support him as CEO, according to Glassdoor. Robert Galbrath—Reuters/Corbis  John Donahoe has been president and CEO of eBay since 2008\. He's now guiding the company in a time of deep uncertainty: In early 2014, eBay settled a nasty public feud with activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants eBay to spin off payment service PayPal as an independent business — and Icahn isn't the only one who thinks that's a good idea. Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Don Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, the social gaming company that brought us FarmVille, in 2013, coming over from Microsoft. He's been tasked with leading Zynga through a tumultuous period — the now publicly-traded company hasn't been able to replicate its FarmVille success, leaving many to wonder about the company's future. Michal Czerwonka—Getty Images ## Transcript It's not the company, it's the 25 million active sellers of small businesses, it's the hundreds of millions of people that buy products off Ebay. 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