eBay started as a social network of buyers and sellers.
Interaction between these two separate yet linked groups of people crossed all boundaries, social, economic, international, class and religion.
eBay is social marketing
...and has been relying on social marketing for its success since long before the terminology was coined.
The Internet has changed a great deal since eBay started.
Back in 1995 the only social networks were AOL, Yahoo and eBay. No one at the time knew eBay would grow into a social marketing network but this is what has happened. Buyers and sellers connected on a personal level over great distances and found common ground in the items they traded for online.