BARGAIN HUNT

What does the e in eBay stand for?

EBAY is well known for being the first online auction site allowing person-to-person transaction.

Created in 1995, the site continued to boom in popularity and is now worth billions.

Advertisement
eBay is well known for being the first online auction site allowing person-to-person transaction.Credit: Alamy

What does the e in eBay stand for?

eBay was founded in California on September 3, 1995, by Pierre Omidyar but it wasn't always called that.

It's name was changed to eBay in 1997 which is an acronym for Echo Bay Technology Group.

The "e" simply stands for Echo in the company name despite the common assumption that the "e" stands for electronic.

What was eBay previously called?

The company was originally called AuctionWeb when it was initially founded.

Advertisement

The name was officially changed to eBay in September 1997.

It was named after Omidyar's consulting firm - Echo Bay Technology Group.

The domain name echobay.com was already taken by a gold mining company, so Omidyar shortened it to eBay.com.

Most read in Tech

TAP DESTINATION!
I found free iPhone travel hack to improve any day out AND save you money
SPACE SAUNA
Horrifying 'roasted' alien planet 'tortured with 1,100C boiling' every 111 days
GOLDEN APPLE
Your old iPhone may be worth £655 as Apple's full trade-in price list revealed
ALIEN LEAP
Huge leap in search for aliens as ‘building blocks for LIFE’ found on asteroid
machibet777.com