What it does: eBay offers convenience and the lowest prices across an unrivaled range of products, giving shoppers access to 1.5-billion listings across eBay’s 190 global marketplaces.
Mission: We aim to create pathways to connect millions of sellers and buyers in more than 190 markets around the world.
Size and presence: With 182-million customers globally, eBay creates connections between sellers and buyers. We empower people and create economic opportunities for all.
Best known for:Our technology empowers our customers, providing everyone the opportunity to grow and thrive — no matter who they are or where they are in the world. And the ripple effect of our work creates waves of change for our customers, our company, our communities, and our planet.
The good bits: Good people, awesome mission cool culture
The not-so-good bits: Long hours and high management oversight.
The eBay story
The AuctionWeb was founded in California on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian-American computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger personal site. One of the first items sold on AuctionWeb was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken; the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." It soon became the first online auction site allowing person-to-person transactions, and its popularity boomed.
Reportedly, eBay was simply a hobby for Omidyar until his Internet service provider informed him he would need to upgrade to a business account due to his high website traffic. The monthly price increase from $30 to $250 prompted him to start charging eBay users, who did not object. Chris Agarpao was eBay's first additional employee to process mailed check payments.
Pierre Omidyar, founder, and chairman of eBay
Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first new president of the company in early 1996. In November 1996, the E-Commerce platform entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction, to use SmartMarket Technology to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal: from 250,000 auctions during all of 1996 to 200,000 in January 1997 alone.[
The company officially changed the name of its service from AuctionWeb to eBay in September 1997, after Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. The domain name echobay.com was already taken by a gold mining company, so Omidyar shortened it to eBay.com In 1997 the company received $6.7 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.
The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated in 1997 by public relations manager Mary Lou Song to give the media a human-interest story more appealing than Omidyar's original vision of a "perfect market". The Pez dispenser myth generated enormous publicity and led to explosive early growth among toy collectors.
The leader in the toy category quickly became Beanie Babies manufactured by Ty, Inc., the most difficult toy to find in retail stores. As collectors internationally were trying to complete their collection of Beanie Babies, Ty set up the first business-to-consumer Web site, a secondary-market online trading post where people could trade their Beanie Babies. However, it was overwhelmed with unsortable listings, creating an urgent demand for a more efficient online trading system. Beanie Babies quickly became the dominant product on eBay, accounting for 10% of all listings in 1997, as collectors thronged eBay's user-friendly interface to search for specific Beanie Babies.
Meg Whitman was hired by the board as eBay's President and CEO in March 1998. At the time, the company had 30 employees, half a million users, and revenues of $4.7 million in the United States.
On September 21, 1998, eBay went public. In the risk factors section of the annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998, Omidyar notes eBay's dependence on the continued strength of the Beanie Babies market. After eBay went public, both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires: eBay's target of $18 per share was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.
2000s
As the company expanded product categories beyond collectibles into almost any saleable item, the business grew quickly. In 2000, eBay had 12 million registered users and a cyber inventory of more than 4.5 million items on sale on any given day. In 2001, eBay had the largest userbase of any e-commerce site. In February 2002 the company purchased iBazar, a similar European auction website founded in 1998, and then bought PayPal on October 3, 2002.
By early 2008 the company had expanded worldwide, counting hundreds of millions of registered users as well as 15,000 employees and revenues of almost $7.7 billion. After nearly ten years at eBay, Whitman decided to enter politics. On January 23, 2008, the company announced that Whitman would step down on March 31, 2008, and John Donahoe was selected to become president and CEO. Whitman remained on the board of directors and continued to advise Donahoe through 2008. In late 2009 eBay completed the sale of Skype for $2.75 billion, but still owned 30% equity in the company.
2010s
In 2012, eBay was charged by the United States Department of Justice with entering into non-solicitation agreements with other technology companies involving their highly skilled employees.
On September 30, 2014, eBay announced it would spin off PayPal into a separate publicly-traded company, a demand made nine months prior by activist hedge fund magnate Carl Icahn. The spinoff was completed on July 18, 2015. eBay's then chief executive, John Donahoe, stepped down from that role. Flipkart and eBay entered into a strategic partnership in 2017 under which eBay Inc acquired a 5.44% stake in Flipkart in exchange for its eBay India business for $211 Mn and a $514 Mn cash investment. As part of the partnership, Flipkart decided to use the eBay platform for global outsourcing.
On January 31, 2018, eBay announced that it would replace PayPal as its primary payments provider with Netherlands-based start-up Adyen. The transition was set to be completed by 2021, but PayPal would remain an acceptable payment option on the site until further notice.
On September 21, 2018, it was reported that eBay would install a security fence around the perimeter of its San Jose headquarters in response to the YouTube headquarters shooting earlier that year.
On July 31, 2019, the company acquired a 5.59 percent stake in Paytm Mall.
On September 25, 2019, it was announced that Devin Wenig would be stepping down as eBay's CEO and that Scott Schenkel, senior vice president, and chief financial officer since 2015, had been appointed as the interim CEO.
2020s
On April 13, 2020, it was announced that Jamie Iannone would become the CEO on April 27. On June 15, 2020, eBay stated that five employees were terminated in September after a law enforcement notification in August because of a possible criminal case of harassment of journalists perpetrated by some of the terminated employees.] Six former employees were charged with Aggressive Cyberstalking.
In July 2020, Adevinta announced to acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group. The deal closed on June 25.
Culture & vibe
Our goal is for everyone to feel they can bring their whole self to work. The key to this is fostering a sense of belonging and having open dialogues within the workplace to broaden perspectives and cultivate empathy.
Millions of sellers turn to eBay to build their businesses and expand their reach to include a global set of buyers. We strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of our customers worldwide.
One of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs from underserved communities in accessing capital. As part of our purpose to create economic opportunity for all, we look for opportunities that allow us to make a difference in the lives of all small business owners.
Recruitment process
Submit the job application.
Resumes are reviewed and shortlisted
Face to Face Interview:
Reference Check
Employment Check and Contract
Managers to contact candidates.
Career prospects
One of our key beliefs at eBay is to inspire, empower and grow richly diverse teams and communities. This means we all share a passion to support the growth and development of our emerging talent. We’re a fast-paced and agile workplace backed by a fun and supportive environment that is focused on helping our graduates learn and grow their careers faster than anywhere else.
Benefits
Leave & holidays
⛔ Bonus annual leave
✅ Bonus parental leave
✅ Unpaid extended leave
Finance & contract
✅ Permanent employee
✅ Signing bonus
✅ Annual bonus
⛔ Stock options
Flexible work
⛔ Full remote work
✅ Partial remote work
✅ Flexible working hours
Family & health
⛔ Child care
✅ Free gym
⛔ Pet-friendly office
✅ Mental health days
Insurance
✅Hospital
✅ Outpatient
✅Dental
✅ Maternity
Perks
⛔ Free breakfast
⛔ Free lunch
✅ Free tea & coffee
✅ Free snacks
✅ Free dinner
Social Contributions
As part of our overall commitment to climate action, we aim to achieve a 90 percent absolute reduction in our Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, a goal that has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We also are committed to being carbon neutral for our offices and data centers (Scopes 1 and 2) by the end of 2021. From 2019 to 2020, we have already reduced our GHG emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 by 19 percent, primarily due to increased investment in renewables.
As a member of RE100, we have set an ambitious 2025 goal to attain 100 percent renewable energy in our electricity supply at eBay-controlled data centers and offices. From 2019 to 2020, we increased our MWhs of renewable energy supply by 9 percent, and thus far, we have achieved 74 percent renewable energy for all of our data centers and offices.
We are committed to reducing consumption and diverting waste from entering landfills at eBay-owned sites. At our San Jose headquarters, our waste diversion rate was 97.5 percent in 2020, an increase from the year prior. We have diverted almost 555 tons of waste from landfills in San Jose in 2020 alone.