What was the original name of the online marketplace that became eBay?

The original name of the online marketplace that became eBay was AuctionWeb.

Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb on September 3, 1995, in California. He created it as part of a personal website, initially exploring whether the internet could make person-to-person sales easier. One of the earliest items sold was a broken laser pointer, which fetched $14.83 from a collector.

The service grew rapidly, and its name changed to eBay in September 1997. The shorter name came from Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar’s consulting firm; because echobay.com was already taken, he shortened it to eBay. The company’s formal corporate name and its marketplace brand later became closely associated with the familiar eBay name.

A common mix-up is to call AuctionWeb eBay’s “first company name.” More precisely, AuctionWeb was the original name of the online service, while eBay became the marketplace’s later name.