In today’s episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly look into the founding of the massive multinational e-commerce company eBay.

On the day it went live it was named AuctionWeb, and was just one project among many being built by its creator, Pierre Omidyar. In fact, a significant part of the site was dedicated to information about Ebola, which happened to be a pet interest of Omidyar.

In this episode, The Retrospectors put to bed the myth that eBay was short for “EbolaBay”; list all the things that you cannot sell on the site; and reveal Olly’s first ever eBay purchase…

Further Reading:

‘The Small-Scale Story Behind eBay's Big Bucks’ (Time magazine, 2015): https://time.com/4013672/ebay-founded-story/

‘25 years on since the birth of eBay, a true giant of modern computing’ (The National, 2020): https://www.thenational.scot/news/18693304.25-years-since-birth-ebay-true-giant-modern-computing/

‘eBay - How It Started’ (Company Man; 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkEorxAxFXo

This episode first premiered in 2023, for members of 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 - where you can also DITCH THE ADS and get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 100 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!

We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/retrospectors

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

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