Pierre Omidyar

Early Life:

Pierre Omidyar founder/chairman of the eBay auction site. His father was a surgeon. The
family moved to the US when Omidyar was six. Growing up in Washington, D.C., Pierre's
interest in computers began at the Potomac School, which started to increase when he was in
the 9th grade. At school, he used to write computer programs for the school library to print
out catalogue cards.

Naming:

The word 'eBay' was made up on the fly by Omidyar when he was told that his first choice
for his web site, 'echobay,' had already been registered. Not wanting to make a second trip to
Sacramento, he came up with 'eBay.'

Never Gave Up:

The rapid expansion of eBay's traffic did not come without growing pains. In 1999 the
company suffered a number of service interruptions, one lasting 22 hours, but Omidyar
moved quickly to regain the confidence of the site's customer base. The company made
10,000 phone calls to the site's top users to apologize for the interruption and assure them that
everything possible would be done to keep the site up and running in the future. As other
online ventures fell victim to the dot.com bust of 2000, eBay continued to grow and prosper.

Acquisition:

In 2002, eBay acquired the online payment processing firm PayPal, which it uses to process
most of its online transactions, compelling many online sellers to employ the service. At the
same time, eBay diversified its services, allowing sellers to engage in fixed-price and "best
offer" sales as well as conventional auctions. Software developers can create applications to
integrate into the site through the eBay Developers Program. In 2005, eBay opened a
category for buying and selling surplus industrial machinery and business equipment. Many
large companies now use eBay to set prices for their products and services.

Recent:

In 2010, Pierre Omidyar joined Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett on
the list of 40 billionaires pledging to donate at least half their wealth to charity. In fact, Pierre
and Pamela Omidyar have resolved to give away all but one percent of their fortune over the
next 20 years.

His Quotes:

What makes eBay successful.. the real value and the real power at eBay is the community. It's
the buyers and sellers coming together and forming a marketplace.
Pierre Omidyar