French-born Iranian-American billionaire, Founder of eBay: Who is Pierre Morad Omidyar?

In 1998, at the age of 31, he became a billionaire with eBay's Initial Public Offering (IPO). Omidyar and his wife Pamela have done a lot of work on behalf of non-profit organizations. The famous couple established the Omidyar Network in 2004 to increase their support for these organizations.

Pierre Morad Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967, in Paris. His mother is a famous linguist. His father is a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins University.

The family later settled in the United States. Pierre Morad Omidyar began his education at the Potomac School in Virginia. He completed his secondary education at St Andrew's Diocesan School in 1984.

Pierre Morad Omidyar decided that he wanted to pursue his undergraduate education in computer science. He specialized in this field in 1988 and received his diploma from Massachusetts Tufts University. After graduating, he worked for a company called “Claris” which developed some software used by “Apple Inc” for several years.

He started working as a software engineer for the software manufacturer General Magic in 1994. He was also making some money as a freelance Web page designer. This is how he met his wife, Pamela Wesley. Wesley, a Pez dispenser collector, complained that she had trouble finding like-minded spirits online. Eager to help, Omidyar set up Wesley's personal web page so she could connect, buy and sell with other collectors from all over the US. This web page contained a small auction service.

Studies Made on the eBay Way

In 1995, at the age of 28, Omidyar started writing computer code for online items. Provided the listing of items to be sent directly from person to person for collectible items. He created a simple prototype on his personal web page. This prototype was running on the auction system. On Monday, September 4, 1995, Labor Day, it launched an online service called Auction Web. The Auction Web is the outline of the famous site known today as e-Bay.

The first item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer. Omidyar, like everyone else, was surprised that the buyer paid for a broken laser pointer. However, it was learned that the buyer had a deliberately broken laser collection. Similar surprises have continued since the establishment of the site. The business exploded and became popular when Omidyar began recording a wide variety of merchandise.

Omidyar acquired the company; The small fee he collected on each sale enabled the site to expand. Income soon outstripped his salary at General Magic, and nine months later, Omidyar decided to devote his full attention to his new venture. In 1997, Omidyar changed the company's name from Auction Web to e-Bay. The eBay name was his second choice. His first choice was already registered with a Canadian mining company called “Echo Bay”. Omidyar longed for Echo Bay; because it sounded good. When he learned that echobay.com had been taken, he dropped echo and ebay.com was born. Thus, Omidyar's small auction site for his girlfriend's collection of Pez dispensers now operates as eBay.

“I never thought that one day I would start a company and be truly successful. I was motivated just by working on the technology.” This is what the famous software developer says about his eBay adventure in an interview. However, when we look at the awards of Pierre Morad Omidyar, we see that this adventure, which was beyond even the dreams of the famous entrepreneur, came true in a beautiful way.