Founded by Pierre Omidyar, online auction and shopping site eBay first burst unto the Internet in 1995 just before the dotcom bubble and managed to survive through that collapse unlike many of its online counterparts. Today the company is a multi-billion dollar business with operations in over thirty countries, but most of us have probably forgotten its humble beginnings – originally known as Auction Web, the first ever item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer sold for a princely price of $14
Twenty years down the road eBay is now a thriving e-commerce site with over 157 million active users, trading pretty much anything across borders. Here’s an insightful infographic from the folks at SnapParcel.com that charts its evolution over the years.
