The history of eBay

From its very humble origins 20 years ago, online auction site eBay has bought, grown and embraced other well-known technology names like PayPal.

This year eBay turned 20 years old. It may now be the best known online auction site worldwide, but its success was almost an accident.

It was founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar. It was only meant to be a side project of his. However, when eBay floated in 1998, it made Mr Omidyar an instant billionaire. Earlier that year, the company had hired Meg Whitman as President and CEO in March 1998. She would go on to become head of computer maker Hewlett Packard.

Both online phone service Skype and payment service PayPal (bought in 2002) have gone through eBay's hands, the latter spun-off from the company earlier this year.

Twenty years after its founding, eBay is now available in more than 180 countries.

1. Find Word in the text that mean the same as

a)     Popular

b)    Modest

c)     Public sale

d)    Employ

e)     Accesible

2.  Indicate whether the following statements are true or false

a)     eBay was meant to be widely successful from the beginning.

b)    The founder of eBay was born in Iran.

c)     Meg Whitman started working for eBay in 1998.

d)    PayPal still belongs to eBay.

KEY

1

a)     Well-known

b)    Humble

c)     Auction

d)    Hired  / to hire

e)     Available

2

a)     False

b)    False

c)     True

d)    False