Fun Facts about Amazon and eBay: Get to Know Online Shopping Giants
These days, we do everything online – and shopping is no exception. Why leave your house when millions of shops are just a click away? Shopping on the web can save you time and often even money by making it way easier to find various limited-time deals and compare prices offered by different vendors.
With Honeygain, you can earn money absolutely effortlessly, so why should you go to all the trouble of circling physical stores? Amazon and eBay are the world’s largest online sellers that allow you to choose from billions of items. Now might be the perfect time to get to know them better before requesting your next Honeygain payout!
1. The first items ever sold on Amazon and eBay were far from crowd-pleasers.
Amazon was initially launched as a bookstore, and the first-ever book purchased on the site in 1995 was Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of The Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter. Not really something you’d expect to see on a bestseller list, huh? And yet, eBay’s first-sell was even more interesting: in 1995, a broken laser pointer was purchased by a collector for $14.83.
Fun fact: with a single Honeygain payout of $20, you could buy both a book AND a working laser pointer online!
2. Both Amazon and eBay originally had different names.
Amazon was first called Cadabra (as in the spell ‘Abracadabra), but the name was later rejected: some said it sounded a lot like ‘cadaver’, and others doubted the general public would get the reference to magic. Amazon – the world’s largest river – was chosen as a symbol of the incredible variety of books the website sold… and as a smart way to move to the top of alphabetical company lists.
eBay initially launched as AuctionWeb – however, it was one of the four companies working under the umbrella company eBay Internet. The team soon noticed both customers and media tend to use the name eBay more than AuctionWeb, so the change seemed like a logical step – and in 1997, all the existing users were migrated to the shiny and new eBay platform.
3. Both Amazon and eBay have acquired world-famous companies and brands.
Even though PayPal is now a fully independent company and Skype has been resold to Microsoft, both of these businesses have belonged to eBay for multiple years. And yet, its buying history comes nowhere near Amazon’s: it currently owns 40+ subsidiaries and brands, including Audible, Goodreads, Whole Foods Market, Twitch Interactive, and others.
To a company, these acquisitions translate to raising their net worth, growing their clientbase, and being able to offer a wider range of products – and the more they can offer, the more options you have for treating yourself with the money you earn effortlessly on Honeygain!
4. Amazon and eBay have extensive prohibited item lists.
It might sometimes seem these giant marketplaces sell everything from A to Z, but you’d be surprised to see how many items are forbidden for unverified or all vendors to sell on Amazon or eBay. Why are these restrictions in place? In most cases, these are items that cannot be safely mailed or stored in warehouses (e.g., pets), have age restrictions (e.g., alcohol), do not meet federal regulations, or simply are illegal (e.g., drugs).
In some cases, Amazon can also restrict third-party sellers from selling specific brands if they are known to frequently be counterfeited/stolen from physical stores or if other vendors have exclusive selling rights to a certain brand.
5. eBay has sued Amazon for allegedly poaching its sellers.
In 2018 and 2019, eBay filed lawsuits against Amazon claiming its staff had been illegally using eBay's system means for inside communication and trying to persuade sellers to leave eBay for Amazon. While Amazon did win the cases as the panel of judges agreed eBay could not provide any tangible evidence to prove it actually suffered real damage, this is a great proof on just how competitive the e-commerce world is!
With Honeygain, you can earn money absolutely effortlessly, so why should you go to all the trouble of circling physical stores?
If reading about online stores makes you want to drop everything and go shopping at last, we've got good news: with Honeygain, you can earn free money effortlessly and treat yourself with extra purchases every month. If you haven't tried it before, now's a perfect time: click the button below and get a $2 starting gift as you join Honeygain!
