INTERVIEW - Pierre Omidyar, Omidyar Network: Rules for Freedom

摘要

Some people look at eBay and see the triumph of little-guy capitalism or the long tail. Others see an emergent community, strengthened with a reputation system and social rules that enable it to evolve through a variety of crises. Yet others see a business that provides social benefits as a by-product, sustained by a profit-seeking engine that keeps it going independent of the motivations of its users and employees. For Omidyar himself, who as a small investor bought into the 1993 3DO public offering at 50 percent more than insider institutions paid, eBay was simply a market that would be fair. He didn't want to compete with Wall Street, he says, but he did want to make the market for used goods "more efficient and give the power and benefit of an efficient market to individuals."