Ebay Inc.

Executive summary:

Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com, and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California. (ebay.com, 2007)

Introduction:

Since eBay's founding in 1995 it has become the world's largest place to buy and sell, a community of hundreds of millions of regular people, small businesses, and even big businesses from all of the seven continents. Millions of items of every kind imaginable, in every condition imaginable, change hands every day on eBay for prices ranging from one cent to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. (ebay.com, 2007)

Main Body:

MISSION AND VISION

According to ebay.com, eBay's mission statement is, "eBay's mission is to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything." They have definitely reached their goal. They have made shopping and selling on the internet enjoyable. You can literally find anything that you want on their website without leaving your house.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

eBay is the world's largest marketplace for rare, discontinued, collectible, or hard-to-find items, no matter what the type or price. Whether you're looking for turn-of-the-century box cameras, hand-made Victorian doilies, Soviet army service medals, or 1980s vintage arcade games, eBay will give you a better selection than just about anyone else anywhere.

Because of the immense variety of things that can be found for sale on eBay, many members have discovered that eBay is one of the best places in the world to window or comparison shop. You can see lots of the same item side-by-side in various conditions and know what each one sold or is selling for. eBay gives you insight into the real market value or "street value" of most types of goods around the world. (Hsiao, 2007)

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS AND SIZE

eBay was founded in San Jose, California on September 3, 1995 by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. He has made eBay worldwide. They are spread over 24 countries and are the world's leading online sell/buying/trading company. Some of the countries include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Sweden, Canada, and Germany, just to name a few. They have markets targeted in all regions of the world and are still growing. (Wikipedia, 2007)

Though they do not have any actual retail stores, there are hundreds of small privately owned stores around the world. They allow you to bring in items that you want to sell on eBay and they will auction it off, package it, and mail it off to the buyer for you.

REVENUES

eBay