eBay launched its website in 1995 as AuctionWeb.
Pierre Omidyar created AuctionWeb in September 1995 as part of a larger personal website. The service allowed users to list items and bid in online auctions, an approach that helped establish peer-to-peer internet commerce.
The company was incorporated as AuctionWeb in 1995 and changed its corporate name to eBay in 1997. The popular story that the original site was created to sell a broken laser pointer is widely repeated, although later accounts have questioned parts of that anecdote. The broader fact remains that AuctionWeb was the early name of the service that became eBay.
In its early years, eBay concentrated on auctions rather than the fixed-price retail model associated with many online marketplaces today.