eBay

Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb in 1995, and eBay charged a listing fee and a percentage of each completed sale on goods it never owned or shipped. That made it profitable early and unusually capital-light, and buyer and seller density fed each other, which is the clearest early example of a consumer network effect. It bought PayPal in 2002 and Skype in 2005, wrote Skype down and sold it, and later lost ground to Amazon's fixed-price marketplace and to trust problems it policed through feedback ratings. Adam Cohen wrote the authorised founding history with access to the company, and Randall Stross followed Benchmark's partners through the investment and the IPO.

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