Like Amazon and Yahoo, auction website eBay is one of those old guard Internet companies that’s still having a big impact today. On Thursday, eBay celebrates its 20th birthday, meaning it’s a great time to look back at the site’s history.
Check out the infographic below for more on how eBay started and what’s happened since, —. There’s fun facts, too: Did you know, for instance, a pair of shoes is sold every two seconds in the U.S.?
Read next: The Small-Scale Story Behind eBay’s Big Bucks
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This Is What The Internet Looks Like
2003 A visualization of routing paths of the Internet on July 8, 2003, shows how the Internet was predominantly overrun by North America. There was less connectivity in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and the least connectivity in Africa and Latin America.
Here's an example: the center of the large North America starburst towards the top-left corner represents an IP address owned by Verizon Business. The lines link to the IP addresses of Verizon Business users.
Barrett Lyon
2006 Three years later, on July 8, 2006, there is increased connectivity in Europe, while Internet routing paths are beginning to become more visible in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Here's an example: the center of Latin America starburst towards the top-left corner represents UNINET Mexico (Telemex), which is a large Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Mexico.
Barrett Lyon
2009 By July 8, 2009, large networks of Internet routing paths in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America have become visible. Connectivity in Africa remained relatively low.
Here's an example: the center of the big Asia-Pacific starburst at 4 o'clock represents the China Education and Research Network Center, which is a massive state-funded network universities across the nation.
Barrett Lyon
2012 As the Internet grows, the center of the map becomes more dense with connections. That's because more users are connecting to more ISPs, which, when mapped, results in more lines.
Here's an example: the center of the Africa starburst at 4 o'clock represents Telecom Egypt (TE Data), an ISP in Egypt that had 1.2 million customers in 2012.
Barrett Lyon
July 11, 2015 Strong growth of Latin America networks through the years has resulted in an Internet that is no longer North America-centric.
Barrett Lyon
Korea Telecom, South Korea's largest internet provider, is a small part of the internet, but a closer look shows it is quite extensive.
Barrett Lyon
A closer look at Korea Telecom
Barrett Lyon
An even closer look at Korea Telecom
Barrett Lyon
The closest look at Korea Telecom shows the many individual IP addresses that together make up an essential part of the internet.
Barrett Lyon
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