eBay vs PayPal – Going Once, Going Twice | 1

July 24, 2018 Laura Bosch 130 Views

At the dawn of the dotcom era, a Silicon Valley tech geek on a personal vendetta rolls out the world’s first e-commerce site. Vintage lunchboxes? Second-hand guitars? B-list celebrity autographs? It all finds a home on AuctionWeb, and before long the site’s growth is skyrocketing.

But founder Pierre Omidyar isn’t prepared for the infrastructure challenges that come with turning his pet project into a real company. Brownouts and site outages soon follow, raising the ire of customers. And without a way to close transactions online, AuctionWeb might be doomed before it takes off.

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Laura Bosch

Laura is WhatPod's Business Editor. Laura began her career working in Marketing, before moving into Mergers & Aquisitions and becoming a freelance consultant in Strategic Business Development in 2012. A veteran of long haul air travel, she splits her time between Melbourne, Australia and Brighton, UK. Got a podcast to suggest ? Contact Laura (laura.bosch@whatpod.com.au)