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.

What do the letters in eBay stand for?

Hi everyone, According to our founder, Pierre Omidyar, eBay stands for electronic Bay. This is partially because Pierre was living in the south Bay area when he founded the company.

Who owns eBay?

eBay isn’t owned by an individual, rather a large group of shareholders and institutional investors. The founder and former chairman Pierre Omidyar owns 5% of eBay, which amounts to a whopping $1.9 billion in 2020.