EBay Celebrates 20th Anniversary With “20 Days Of Deals” Promotion & Major Update To Mobile Apps

Since its launch 20 years ago over Labor Day weekend in 1995, eBay has evolved from one of the original Silicon Valley tech companies to one of the world’s largest ecommerce websites.

Today, the site is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the release of eBay 4.0, an updated version of its mobile apps, as well as launching a “20 Days of Deals” promotion. For the next 20 days, eBay shoppers will have access to various discounted products — from fashion to tech and more — while sellers will be given special incentives to list more items.

[pullquote]”We have sold enough cars to encircle the moon more than four times. The number of paintings we’ve sold could fill the Louvre over 45 times.”[/pullquote]

Defined as a “major update” to its iOS and Android apps, eBay says it new mobile app offers, “… a more customized, personalized and simplified way” for users to browse, shop and sell from their mobile devices.

[blockquote cite = “eBay Chief Product Officer RJ Pittman”]Back in December, we put a stake in the ground with the updated eBay for iPad app… After launching that app, we heard from our eBay community — they loved the design, but sellers wanted more robust tools to help mange listings and buyers wanted to be inspired when browsing through eBay’s 800M+ listings.[/blockquote]

Noting it released one of the first iPhone apps in 2008, eBay’s app has been downloaded 279 million times. The site included the following video in its announcement, highlighting key features of eBay 4.0:

Founded by software programmer Pierre Omidyar, eBay now includes approximately 25 million sellers, 157 million buyers, and more than 800 million items listed for sale.

“We have sold enough cars to encircle the moon more than four times. The number of paintings we’ve sold could fill the Louvre over 45 times. eBay’s apps have been downloaded 279 million times.”

To kick off its 20th anniversary celebrations, eBay is hosting a global seller summit this week and taking its “20 Deals in 20 Days” promotion on the road, with an eBay-decorated Airstream that is schedule to make stops in San Francisco, Denver and New York City between now and the end of the month.