eBay

past

eBay, officially known as eBay inc., is an American online auction website where people buy and sell goods and services on a global scale. eBay was founded in San Jose in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll. From the beginning of eBay's existence it was meant to be an online marketplace, meaning the site as a whole hasn't undergone any drastic changes since its creation. Omidyar originally named the site Auction Web and is famous for first selling a broken laser pointer. Professor Stanton mentioned this during one of the Thursday classes, stating that Omidyar contacted the buyer to confirm that the buyer understood that the laser pointer was broken. The buyer admitted to knowing it was broken and said that he collected broken laser pointers. Rumor has it that at this point Omidyar knew he had created something useful to the web and that a middle man style site to facilitate sales was something that people would genuinely use. Skoll wouldn't join the team until 1996 when the company had grown to a point where Omidyar could no longer manage and operate the site by himself. It was during this reformatting that Auction Web transformed into the 'eBay' we know and love today. 

present

Today, eBay operates much like it did when it first started out. The core concept of the site is more or less timeless with society always needing a means to buy and sell goods. One of the reasons for eBay's long lives success is the fact that it is able to apply a familiar concept and mode of thinking to a new (although new may not be fitting any longer) form of media. Garage sales and flea markets took advantage of the ideas that people would buy used or worn goods for a cheaper cost and that this was a much more sustainable solution that simply trashing whatever item no longer served a purpose. By applying that concept to an online, global, marketplace and allowing people to shop not only from their desk but around the world, eBay found its niche where it still resides successfully today. eBay inspired auctions sites to crop up all over the web, most notable craigslist and quibids. Both of these sites have taken the model that eBay crafted and added a spin in order to try and carve out their own unique niche under the umbrella that is online auctioning. Craigslist, as you probably know, eliminates the need for shipping by showing you sellers who are within a defined radius to your location. Quibids has also been able to steal some of the thunder from eBay by functioning on a penny auction model. eBay functions with a tradition english style bidding where buyers increase a price until either one of the bidders ceases to bid or the auction ends leaving one winner. Those bidding on Quibids must pay a fee to bid, and these combined fees act as part of the profit that the seller sees at the end of the sale. What this means is that the buyer can purchase goods for far below retail value and the seller doesn't see much, if any, of a profit drop because of the accumulative small fees that were collected during the bidding process. 

Recently, eBay underwent a very newsworthy rebranding campaign, ditching their playful logo that had donned their page since 1996, opting to go for a much sleeker, professional looking logo while maintaining a connection to the past. The logo was unveiled for the 17th anniversary of eBay's existence and is said to be "rooted in our proud history and reflect a dynamic future." It is always risky for companies to undergo rebranding, especially when it comes to logos as iconic as eBay's. However, the new eBay logo was well received across the design community and seen as long overdue and accepted as a huge improvement. To stay within the design community for a minute, eBay has affected the way that world marketplace thinks and operates outside of the web. A new movement in the product world, which was presented to me in one of my design courses because of the potential this idea poses for new design problems and solutions, is the concept of 'swap' markets. eBay provides buyers with goods and sellers with reimbursement in the form of a monetary payment. What swap markets aim to do is eliminate the need for currency by finding another good to swap for the first. The idea is very intriguing at sites such as swapferit.com (perhaps in need of a more professional name) have already begun facilitating deals like this. The idea that people may not need money in order to obtain something they want, but rather, they could simply give something they no longer want away is very enticing and, given the right circumstances, could be something eBay may have to adapt to or contend with. Obviously, there are holes that need to be worked out; people may not want used goods, the percentage for finding a match has to be quite small, etc. However, if someone was willing to buy a broken laser pointer it is not out of the question that this idea has the potential to take off. 

future

eBay's importance spreads beyond this class to something that may affect our everyday sales and transactions and potentially even the value of our dollar. From being the first auction style site to being one of the quickest growing and most successful start up sites on the web eBay is the poster child for successful web ideas. Furthermore, it continues to fuel and add credibility to the online marketplace while simultaneously inspiring other sites to push the boundaries of online sales and transactions to present a future that offers possibilities of trade, sustainability, and reusability that would never have been possible without eBay.