eBay was nothing more than a virtual marketplace, and by being virtual, it didn’t actually do anything other than facilitate the interactions between buyers and sellers. It didn’t store goods. It didn’t ship goods. It didn’t even guarantee the exchange of goods between buyers and sellers! The one truly tangible thing that eBay had was the goodwill of those buyers and sellers and the community they were creating—on their own—to make the buying and selling happen. eBay would be one of the first web companies to understand that all the value of its service came from the users and their community.
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