Quotes by Pierre Omidyar

About Pierre Omidyar:

Pierre Morad Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder of the eBay auction site, and served as Chairman from 1998 to 2015. He became a billionaire at the age of 31 with eBay's 1998 Initial Public Offering (IPO). Omidyar and his wife Pamela are well-known philanthropists who founded Omidyar Network in 2004 in order to expand their efforts beyond nonprofits to include for-profits and public policy.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

In 1991, I co-founded my first start-up, Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer.

Pierre Omidyar

I had always been interested in markets - specifically, the theory that in financial markets, goods will trade at a fair value only when everyone has access to the same information.

Pierre Omidyar

In February of 1996, about six months after I created eBay, I started receiving a spate of complaints. Everyone was complaining about each other. I felt very much like I was a parent who had to adjudicate the brothers beating each other up.

Pierre Omidyar

As a philanthropist, I try to help people take ownership. Everything I've done is rooted in the notion that every human being is born equally capable. What people lack is equal opportunity.

Pierre Omidyar

I do like to fly under the radar. When I walk around town, the only people I want to recognise me and call me by my name are the folks at Starbucks.

Pierre Omidyar

News organisations that have been around a while have a lot of traditions and ways of doing things that may have served them for many years but perhaps make them less flexible in the digital era. As an entrepreneur, it just makes more sense to start ...

Pierre Omidyar

A lot of people don't just go ahead and try things.

Pierre Omidyar

I'm a technologist by origin and by training, but I'm focused on philanthropy.

Pierre Omidyar

When you have mass surveillance, it's impossible to meet the intent of the First Amendment because reporters can't talk to sources because sources are afraid to talk.

Pierre Omidyar

When I started eBay, it was a hobby, an experiment to see if people could use the Internet to be empowered through access to an efficient market. I actually wasn't thinking about it in terms of a social impact.

Pierre Omidyar

If you can get over this initial distrust that people have of strangers, you can do remarkable things.

Pierre Omidyar

If you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, you'll rarely be disappointed.

Pierre Omidyar

Everyone is born equally capable but lacks equal opportunity.

Pierre Omidyar

My parents made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do. They were really into empowering me.

Pierre Omidyar

In terms of my belief that one individual can make a difference - that belief comes from my parents.

Pierre Omidyar

Advertisers don't want to put their ads next to the investigative story; it's extremely difficult to do that. And very few people today actually read those serious news stories on the Web now.

Pierre Omidyar

Companies in Silicon Valley invest a lot in understanding their users and what drives user engagement.

Pierre Omidyar

I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy.

Pierre Omidyar

eBay's business is based on enabling someone to do business with another person, and to do that, they first have to develop some measure of trust, either in the other person or the system.

Pierre Omidyar

In the same way that you're driven in your business to keep innovating - Facebook is a wonderful example of constant innovation - think about doing that in philanthropy.

Pierre Omidyar

Author Bio

  • NamePierre Omidyar
  • DescriptionFrench-born Iranian American entrepreneur and philanthropist
  • BornJune 21, 1967
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilanthropist; Entrepreneur; Economist