eBay was a backup domain — Omidyar wanted Echo Bay but the name was taken

In 1995, Pierre Omidyar was a 28-year-old computer programmer living in Silicon Valley. He created a small auction website as a side project — a place where people could sell collectibles directly to each other. The site was called AuctionWeb and ran on a single server. Omidyar paid $30 per month for the hosting. He never expected the site to become a business.

Omidyar wanted to register a company name for the side project. He chose 'Echo Bay Technology Group' — inspired by the Echo Bay mining district in Nevada where he had lived. But when he checked the domain, echobay.com was already registered by someone else. He could not use the name. Omidyar needed a backup. He registered ebay.com instead — a shortened version of the name he actually wanted.

AuctionWeb grew quickly. Within months, the site was handling thousands of auctions. Omidyar quit his job and turned the project into a business. He renamed the company to eBay in 1997. The name that was never supposed to be the company name — the compromise domain — became the brand. eBay was always the backup plan.

eBay became one of the most successful companies in internet history. The company was valued at over $700 million at its IPO in 1998. By 2024, eBay had over 130 million active buyers and generated over $10 billion in annual revenue. The company that was named by default — because someone else had the domain Omidyar wanted — became the world's largest online marketplace.