Ebay Inc.
A global online marketplace where people buy and sell everything from car parts and collectibles to luxury goods, connecting active buyers and sellers across dozens of countries. It was launched in 1995 as "AuctionWeb" by programmer Pierre Omidyar as a hobby experiment, with its first sale being a broken laser pointer that went to a collector. The name "eBay" came from Omidyar's consulting firm, Echo Bay Technology Group, shortened when the domain was taken by a mining company.