Ebay, Ebay

In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries. eBay Inc. also owns PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Kijiji,and other businesses.

In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." How did eBay start? , About.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.

This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store , and confirmed by eBay.

In November 1996, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name echobay.com (the domain has recently been put up for sale) but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.

In 2005, eBay launched its Business & Industrial category, breaking into the industrial surplus business. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide. Anything may be offered for sale as long as it is not illegal and does not violate the eBay Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.

It closed in 2008. Selected eBay items were mirrored on eBay Express, where buyers shop using a shopping cart to purchase from multiple sellers. The UK version was launched to eBay members in mid-October 2006 but on January 29, 2008 eBay announced its intention to close the site January 2008 . The German version was also opened in 2006 and closed in 2008 (eBay Express Germany).

The U.S.-based eBay.com takes $0.20 to $80 per listing and 5.25 percent or less of the final price (as of 2007). The UK based ebay.co.uk (ebay.co.uk offices) takes from GBP 0.15 to a maximum rate of GBP 3 per 100 for an ordinary listing and from 0.75 percent to 5.25 percent of the final price. In addition, eBay now owns the PayPal payment system which has fees of its own.

However, most sellers that operate as a full time business do follow state tax regulations on their eBay transactions. However for the tax called Value added tax (VAT), eBay requires sellers to include the VAT fees in their listing price and not as an add-on and thus eBay profits by collecting fees based on what governments tax for VAT.

In its Q1 2008 results, total payment volume via Paypal increased 17 percent, but off the eBay auction site it was up 61 percent.

The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.

The auction was removed when eBay determined that the vessel qualified as ordnance, even though all weapons systems had been removed.

It has been named Mindarus harringtoni after Dr Harrington. He had wanted to name it Mindarus ebayi , but this name was disallowed as being too flippant. The 45-million-year-old aphid, preserved in a piece of Baltic amber, is now housed in the Natural History Museum in London.

Source: Wikipedia > Ebay