Ebay’s 1995 debut
The eBay domain name was registered 30 years ago today, on August 4, 1995. But the site we know today as Ebay didn’t launch until almost month later, September 3, 1995, under a different name. Auctionweb, the original name for Ebay, was a side project. From these humble beginnings came one of the few survivors of the dotcom era.
The name eBay was always a little bit curious. Other early online auction sites had the word “auction” in the name, or at least something related to selling. I made my first few online auction purchases from a site called onsale.com. Sticking the letter “e” in front of whatever you were selling and registering a dotcom was a common tactic in the late 90s.
But a bay? That’s a body of water. Sure, bays are convenient places for ships to dock so the name kinda-sorta evokes trading, but it doesn’t seem like the best name for an auction site.
Originally it wasn’t. Originally Ebay stood for Echo Bay Technology Group, Pierre Omidyar’s other company. Auction Web was his side project. With echobay.com already taken by a gold mining company, he shortened it to Ebay.
