EBay as an International Business Firm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

EBay as an International Business Firm - Essay Example French computer programmer Pierre Omidyar established the eBay on 3rd September, 1995 at San Jose, California. This establishment was actually in the favor of his wife to sale her collectibles. Initially the name of organization was AuctionWeb which was renamed as eBay in 1997 (catalogs.com). A laser printer amounting $14.83 was the first sold item. In November 1996, eBay made its first third-party licensing deal with Electronic Travel Auction to sell air tickets and different travel products. The site hosted 250,000 and 2,000,000 auctions during 1996 and 1997 respectively (Lewis, 2008). In 2002, the company bought PayPal, the leading transaction medium of the world. In 2008, the company’s revenue reached 7.7 billion dollars and the strength of manpower exceeded by 15,000. eBay successfully purchased the rights of Skype in 2009 for an amount of 2.75 billion dollars (Washington Post, 2009) Scope of Business eBay is an international firm which deals a huge of variety of items fo r sale and purchase. This huge list of items include a variety of collectibles in the field of electronics, fashion, motors, antiquates, sports, household items, movies, music and games etc. The firm uses PayPal for payment which is one of the fastest, secure, and the largest online transaction medium. Key Management of eBay Corporate and strategic planning are fundamentals of this facet of the firm. It includes the Management Information System (MIS) and some other controlling agencies like accounting, electricity, and human resource departments. However, eBay provides a web based environment works which is like newspapers-classified section. It entertains consumer to consumer transactions but does not take responsibility of the custody of sold items. Areas of Operations Presently eBay operates about 30 countries in terms of different categories of its business. The countries include Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ge rmany, Greece, France, Hungary, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States (www.ebay.com). Achievements After launching in 1995, the firm has done tremendous achievements in all facets of business. Today about 147 million people use this site in more than 30 countries across the globe. After 16 years, the company manpower strength has reached about 17,700 (finance.yahoo.com). The company market capitalization had surpassed that of even Amazon.com, helping to make it the world’s most worthwhile Internet retail outlet. In 1997, there have been 40 types of products available; the actual publishing associated with collectibles as well as antiques experienced a significant growth. Other categories with regard to these things were demanded by customers. At social level, the primary concern of eBay had been to ascertain confidence amongst remote control as well as unknown potential traders that could possibly in no way have interaction yet again. This had been done through the review programs pertaining to setting up reputations with online community subscribers who