Pierre Morad Omidyar is an American programmer, a successful entrepreneur, the founder of the world's largest auction site eBay and just a well-known billionaire. Since 2004, together with his wife, he founded a philanthropic investment fund, which is called the Omidyar Network. In 1998, after the sale of a significant part of the shares on eBay (IPO - initial public offering / offering), he instantly became a billionaire.
High Tech Generation: Status of eBay Auction Founder
Pierre Morad Omidyar is one of the few IT people who developed a high-tech business model in time and achieved unprecedented success in a matter of years.
Mark Zuckerberg (owner and founder of the world-famous Facebook social network), Michael Dell (founder of Dell Comp.Corp), Jeff Bezos (owner of Amazon.com) and many others, including Pierre Omidyara, are all representatives of society “High technologies”, which have billions, or even tens of billions of dollars in their assets. In collaboration with Jeff Skoll, whose fortune totals $ 6 billion, Omidyar founded the company eBay, which from the very first days became profitable. In the first few years, revenue growth rose annually at a rate of 90-95%. This project made its founders big billionaires in a short period of time (3 years), by the way, during this period they did not make significant financial investments. In America, such people are called “self made”, which in Russian means “made himself”, that is, made his fortune.
Currently, Pierre Omidyar is on the list of “Top 200 richest people on the planet, ” with $ 9.2 billion in assets.
Pierre Omidyar: biography, acquaintance with programming
The hero of our article was born on June 21 in 1967 in Paris, France (Iranian by nationality - his parents emigrated to France in his youth). He grew up and was brought up in a family of a general practitioner. In 1973, he moved with his family to the United States (Maryland). It was because of his father that the family had to move, since he received a new medical degree from Johns Hopkins University.
From the Persian language, the surname "Omidyar" is translated as "one who is loved by hope." Being in the ninth grade, the guy began to be interested in information technology and programming. At that time, Omidyar spent all his free time at the computer. His parents were in a panic from such a daily routine; they carefully hinted to his son that he would at least sometimes rest from the monitor. But the young man did not play games for days on end, but was engaged in self-education.
How Pierre made his first money
The first program he wrote was an online school library. This suggests that already at the age of 14 he made discoveries in the development of unique programs. The school paid Pierre a lot of money at that time - about $ 6 for every hour of work on the software product. At that time, Pierre Omidyar understood how to make good money. He found his calling. The guy began to study programming with even greater zeal, combining his hobbies with making money.
After graduating from high school, Pierre enrolled at Taft University in Medford (Massachusetts) at the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology. The guy studied diligently. In 1988, he graduated with honors from an educational institution and received a bachelor's degree.
Life after graduation
Immediately after receiving the diploma, Pierre Omidyar began to look for a job. The guy was well versed in many areas of programming, so there was no need to look for a vacant place for a long time - he was accepted by the developer of custom applications at Claris, which at that time was a branch of a large Apple corporation. The work was interesting and fascinating, Pierre found exactly what he dreamed about. Within the company, he wrote his first professional MacDraw software product. Soon, Omidyar realizes that he receives more pleasure from the “creation” of his own programs than from the development of client applications that are made according to the template. This was the first hint that Pierre did not want to work for someone for a fixed salary.
Jobs at Ink Development Corporation
In 1991, the hero of our article and several of his like-minded friends organized their own company called Ink Development Corporation, which was engaged in the development of front-end applications. Then, Pierre created a program that was supposed to revolutionize the entire computer environment. This was an application for controlling a computer with a regular ballpoint pen. However, he did not get success with this development. As a result, the business of novice manager Pierre Omidyar and the company did not take place, and the guys split up.
In 1994, Omidyar was sent an invitation to the large "IT" company General Magic, which is developing mobile communications. Here he was accepted as a service development engineer. Later, the company was renamed eShop, and things went uphill. Over time, the Bill Gates empire bought back the shares of eShop, but Pierre Omidyar did not work here.
Pierre Omidyar: biography and family
Living in San Francisco, a successful programmer met his future wife Pamela Wesley, who at that time was a graduate student at Golden Gate University. The couple began a romantic relationship, and soon they started a family. Today, Pierre and Pamela raise three children.
Once Pamela told Pierre that she collects candy boxes. It was popular at the time. The girl complained to her boyfriend that she could not purchase a new collection kit, because she did not know to whom her old boxes could be sold or exchanged for something else. Then a fanatical programmer and just a guy in love set out to help Pamela. He thought for a very short time and developed special software for a personal site, with which it would be possible to organize the sale of various things online. It was a revolutionary idea, because Pierre did not just create an online store or bulletin board, but an entire auction! A few weeks later, people began to enter the site and put up their lots. Initially, it was a non-profit project. But soon, Internet service provider Pierre Omidyara presented him with an additional bill for the fact that the site AuctionWeb.com (later renamed to eBay.com) occupies a significant part of the traffic, so the young businessman began to charge a certain amount of money from users. Every day, thousands of new users visited the site. A simple idea became the embodiment of an entire project, which brought incredible success in the future. A year later, Pierre gave his lover a rare example of a candy machine that he found in the Denver State Museum.
Interesting Facts About eBay.com Auction Sales
In 1998, the founder of the auction, Pierre Omidyar, recorded a ten millionth transaction on eBay.com (which at that time became the largest in the United States). Three years later, the co-founders of the company, led by Omidyar, became large millionaires, and the eBay.com auction became the largest and most expensive in the world. The success and popularity of this trading platform is explained by the fact that there you can sell and buy any product. Naturally, the lots are filtered and comply with the restrictions of the legitimate moral plan. It was on eBay.com that an entire city was once put up for sale by decision of the municipal government. Also known is the case when one American wanted to sell his soul for $ 5000. Some madmen even made bets, but the site administration blocked the lot on time, explaining that it was impossible to prove the availability of goods.
