eBay Guide Series 1- Introduction to eBay - Part 1

eBay Guide from Addy Kho


How to Make Money on eBay





I have a really good year in 2010. After launching the free ebook RM1000 Per Day System, I received emails from a lot of you asking me how to make money on eBay. The RM1000 Per Day system has nothing to do with eBay and therefore I can understand why some of you asking me the eBay questions. There is nothing wrong to think about making money on eBay because there is more than $60 Billion being traded on eBay every year. That equivalents to $2000 spent via eBay every second.
After some thoughts, I think it is best if I can come out with a series of eBay guides here. I will cover the followings:

• Introduction to eBay
• Tools to Get Started
• How to Make a Good Listing
• Advance Selling on eBay
• Clever eBay Buying tactic
• Payment – Paypal
• Alternative to eBay
• Review and Conclusion

eBay Guide Series 1 – Introduction to eBay

Part 1 – History of eBay

eBay is already a brand name by itself. But not many people know about the history of eBay. And I believe you would not know that eBay is not the original name for this auction site.
The founder of eBay is a Franco-Iranian programmer at Baltimore, Pierre Omidyar. He first set up his website called AuctionWeb to try out the auction concept and the first item listed for sale was his very own broken laser pointer. Of course Pierre Omidyar did not expect the broken laser pointer to sell. But to his surprise, the laser pointer was sold at $14.83!! “You do realise it is broken?” Omidyar emailed the winning bidder. “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers,” he replied. What a wonderful start.
The site went on with all manner of listings and started to gain popularity. Omidyar was then trying to register the site under a more lucrative or expensive business domain. First he tried to register Echobay Partners LTD, after the name of his consultancy firm – Echo Bay Technologies. But the domain was taken by someone and he therefore resolved to a shorter version of domain- eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices.



Some important events of eBay.com evolution are listed below:

• 1996 – Omidyar started charging a fee based on the final sale price. To his astonishment, the income doubled for four consecutive months and he decided to quit his consulting firm and pay full attention to eBay. eBay recruited its first employee, Chris Agarpao and also first company president, Jeff Skoll. At the same year, eBay boasted 41,000 registered users and also a total merchandise sale of $7.2 mil.Pierre Omidyar - Founder of eBay
• 1997- Secure a venture capital of $5 mil and grow to 41 employees. eBay was hosting 200,000 auctions per year and had 341,000 registered users as compared to only 41,000 a year ago. The gross sales exceeded $95 mil. Feedback stars was introduced. The name, AuctionWeb was also dropped and replaced by it domain name- eBay.
• 1998- My eBay was launched by the new CEO, Margaret Whitman to facilitate both seller and buyer to manage their own accounts. eBay foundation was also set up for charity course. 1998 is a very important year to eBay because it went public. Both Omidyar and Skoll became instant Billionaires. The registered users grew to 2.1 Mil with gross traded volume of $740 mil.
• 1999- eBay went international. eBay was launched in Germany first, followed by the UK & Australia. eBay Motor was also launched in the same year, offering a market place for cars, motorcycles, boats, collectable cars, parts and accessories. BUY IT NOW was also introduced to compliment the auction. The company has grown to 640 employees and 10 mil registered users! eBay also bought an online payment gateway- Billpoint in year 1999. But Billpoint acquisition was proven to be a failure as compared to Paypal.
  
• 2000- eBay became no 1 e-commerce site. Canada, France, Austria & Taiwan eBay sites were launched too. By the end of this year, eBay has around 1900 employees (triple of year 1999) and 22 mil registered users.
• 2001- eBay Stores were launched. International eBay was also launched in Ireland, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore & Switzerland.
  
• 2001- eBay swallowed up 8 auction site competitors. The most significant, important and successful move in eBay history is the acquiring of PayPal. PayPal has now become the No1 online payment gateway.
  
• 2003- eBay continued to grow. The employee number jumped to 5700 and there was 95 mil registered users. Out of the 95 mil users, 40 mil of them have PayPal account. Buyer Protection was introduced by PayPal. If your purchase item is different from the listing description or not arriving at all, you are protected by PayPal and you could appeal to PayPal and get your money back.
• 2004- eBay launched its Malaysia & Philippines sites. A technology development centre was opened in China this year to accelerate its innovation.
  
• 2005- eBay made its biggest purchase- Skype. Other purchases including Verisign Merchant Gateway and Shopping.com. You can check out the list of acquisition by eBay on Wiki. Poland and Sweden sites were also launched the same year.
• 2006- Guess what? eBay reached 222 mil registered users and having 13200 employees worldwide.
• 2008- If you have been selling on eBay for long, you should notice that seller can’t leave negative feedback to the buyer any more starting this year. The change in the rule has caused a havoc among sellers. Even though a lot of us have moaned and groaned about the changes, but there is no better alternative to eBay if one wants to sell online.
  
• 2009- eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but will still own 30% equity in the company. Revenue of eBay in year 2009 was reported to be $8.7 bil.
• 2010- eBay was acquiring a German online shopping club – brands4friends for $197 million to strengthen the company fashion business in Europe.

brands4friends

I myself have been selling on eBay for long. And I can see that eBay keeps changing from time to time- the rules, design & application. It is for sure that eBay has changed for better – improve the selling and buying experience.
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy
Part 2 – Why eBay?? Coming Soon …..