This story in USAToday looks at eBay turning 10.”The first version of what would become eBay went online in September 1995.Since then,the company has been on quite a run.It had $3.3 billion in revenue in 2004,getting to that mark faster than Dell, Microsoft or Cisco Systems.It has 135 million users worldwide ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ a cyber nation-state about as populated as Germany and France combined.EBay’s market capitalization is about four times that of Amazon.com’s and 25% more than Yahoo’s ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ two other Internet stars born around the same time.In the meantime,eBay has become a phenomenon.It has changed how people think about the junk they once might’ve sold at garage sales. It has fostered the idea that trust between strangers can be established over the Internet. And it has been a source of amusement, whether about the grilled-cheese sandwich with the image of the Holy Mother that sold for $28,000 or the man who auctioned his forehead for advertising space for $37,375.Almost all of it ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ the growth, the impact, the oddities ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ has come as a surprise”.
10 years ago,eBay changed the world