Early life and work

Born in Paris, France, Omidyar moved to the US at the age of 6. Growing up in Washington, D.C., he developed an interest in computing while still at high school. In 1988 he graduated in computer science from Tufts University, and joined Claris, an Apple Computer subsidiary, where he helped write MacDraw. In 1991 he co-founded Ink Development, a pen-based computing startup that was later rebranded as an e-commerce company (and renamed eShop).

eBay and later career

Pierre Omidyar was just 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became an Internet superbrand — the auction site eBay. The reason that he started eBay was because he wanted to see what would happen if everyone had equal access to venues of trade.

However, it wasn't actually called that at the time of its launch on Labor Day, Monday, 4 September 1995. It first appeared under the more prosaic title of Auction Web; it was hosted on the same site as Omidyar had created for information on the ebola virus. It was later renamed after the site's domain name ebay.com (a shortening of Echo Bay, Omidyar's consulting firm). The service was free at first, but started charging in order to cover his internet service provider costs.

Jeffrey Skoll, a Stanford MBA, joined the company in 1996 after the site was already profitable. In March 1998, Meg Whitman was brought in as President and CEO and continues to run the company today. In September 1998, eBay launched a successful public offering, making both Omidyar and Skoll billionaires — 3 years after Omidyar created eBay. As of 2005, Omidyar's 214 million eBay shares were worth around $8 billion.

Omidyar Network

Main article: Omidyar Network
The Network's stated mission is to "enable individual self-empowerment on a global scale" and employ "business as a tool for social good" (inspired by 18th century economic philosopher Adam Smith). Drawing from a $200 million for-profit fund and a $200 million nonprofit fund, the Network invests in areas such as microfinance, technology and community-based initiatives expecting risk-appropriate returns on all for-profit investments. Omidyar decided to create the Network in lieu of a traditional Foundation when he recognized that eBay's social impact as a for-profit company was scalable and financially self-sustaining. Omidyar cites "trust between strangers" as the social impact tied to eBay's ability to be profitable. Prior to launching Omidyar Network in June 2004, he had invested his personal money in Meetup, a website Omidyar didn't found himself but on whose Board of Directors he now sits. He cites "strangers connecting over shared interests" as the social impact tied to Meetup's ability to be profitable.

Omidyar recently donated $100 million to Tufts University to launch the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund. The fund is intended to spur economic self-empowerment for the poor in developing countries through microfinancing, while demonstrating to other institutional investors the potential of microfinance as commercially viable. Omidyar also actively invests in for-profit microfinance opportunities through Omidyar Network.