Who Is the Richest Iranian in the World?

According to Saed News, citing Simorgh, he founded the company in 1995.

Pierre Morad Omidyar was born on June 21, 1967, in Paris. His parents were Iranians who had gone abroad for higher education. His mother, Elaheh Mirjalali Omidyar, earned her PhD in linguistics from the Sorbonne University, and his father was a surgeon.

When Pierre was six years old, his family immigrated to the United States, and he grew up in Washington. At the age of 14, he entered the world of bits and computers by writing his second computer program for his school library. Omidyar attended St. Andrew’s School in Maryland and graduated in 1984. He then enrolled at Tufts University and graduated in 1988 with a degree in Computer Science. Shortly after, he went to work at Claris, a subsidiary of Apple.

At this company, he worked on writing programs for the Mac platform. In 1991, he was among those who founded Ink Development Corporation, a software company. This company later evolved into an e-commerce business and was renamed eShop.

When Pierre Omidyar was 28 years old, during a holiday he wrote a computer program that eventually became a major internet brand known as the eBay auction site. With expertise in computer programming, he gathered several websites into a single platform under the address www.ebay.com and managed it from his living room.

During another holiday, Omidyar decided to create a place for online auctions. He implemented the idea and called it “Auction Web.” To test the functionality of his site, he listed a defective laser pointer for auction. Two weeks later, the item was sold for $14. This became the first item sold on the site, officially marking the launch of the platform. The site operated under the name “Auction Web” for some time but was renamed eBay in 1997. According to Omidyar, the idea was simple yet idealistic: “Through the internet, it is possible to create a complete and transparent market where supply and demand are clearly visible to everyone.”

Initially, the service was free, but to cover internet hosting costs, fees were introduced. In a short time, many buyers and sellers joined the platform, and transactions increased significantly. Omidyar charged a small fee ranging from 25 cents to 2 dollars for participation in auctions, along with a percentage of each transaction. In this way, eBay made interaction between buyers and sellers much easier. After nine months, Omidyar left his job at General Magic to work full-time on eBay.

Currently, eBay has around 15,500 employees. Its revenue in 2009 was estimated at over $8.72 billion, with a net income of about $2.39 billion. In 2009, eBay had more than 84 million users.

Pierre Omidyar and his wife, like Bill Gates and his wife, have announced that they intend to spend a large portion of their wealth over the coming years. They stated that within twenty years, they will give away all but one percent of their fortune. Omidyar currently has three children and lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.