Few people can claim to have become self-made millionaires three years after starting their own business – fewer still in the notoriously competitive world of the internet.
But Pierre Omidyar, was only 28 when he produced the first version of eBay, a company originally called Auction Web. French-born Omidyar had shown entrepreneurial tendencies before, starting an e-commerce company specialising in pens, but it was the simple idea of an online auction site that paved the way to riches.
Omidyar had shown entrepreneurial tendencies before, starting an e-commerce company specialising in pens
Yet Omidyar, rather like Friends Reunited founders Steve and Julie Pankhurst, was blissfully unaware of what he was unleashing. He placed a page on his website to help his girlfriend trade her Pez candy dispensers with other people that collected, er, Pez Candy dispensers. When other people started advertising other, sometimes less ridiculous items, he started receiving payments for the privilege and the first stirrings of an empire were felt.
eBay – named after Omidyar’s consulting firm Echo Bay, a name already registered on the web – was profitable within a year, but it was its stock market flotation in 1998 that turned him into a tycoon. He still owns roughly $8bn of eBay’s stock market value, although it is now run by Chairman Jeffrey Skoll and President Meg Whitman.
In 2004, Forbes estimated his wealth as $8.5bn. But Omidyar is no simple businessman, ready to luxuriate in the trappings of wealth. He has vowed to donate all but 1% of his income to philanthropic causes, mainly helping those less privileged than himself, particularly those in the third world, onto the path to financial success. A devotee of 18th century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, he is a great believer in business as a force for good in the world.
Realising that the basic principle of eBay – putting strangers in touch with a mutual interest in doing so, in this case to buy and sell things – is transferable to other sectors, he plans to expand into other areas. He has already begun this with the purchase of Meetup, a community website that helps people with shared interests get in touch.
