Top e-commerce sites and their evolution

eBay Inc.:

eBay is the worlds online consumer to consumer corporation, headquartered at SJ-California with operations in 30 countries. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar. Currently there 100 million active users and total value of the good sold on eBay was $68.6 billion dollar, which means $2100 every second.

"What I wanted to do was create an efficient market, where regular people could compete with big business ... it was a little bit of an experiment." — Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder

The journey began when Pierre (Computer software programmer) wrote a code for experimentation purpose and posted a broken laser pointer on this new auction website. To his surprise it was bought at $ 14.83 by a collector and the journey began.

Ebay companies:

Paypal
Skype
BillMeLater
GSI Commerce
X.commerce
MercadoLibre
Craigslist
StubHub
Shopping.com
Half.com
Brands4friends
mFoundry
Taiwan (Ruten)
ChannelAdvisor
Classifieds

Amazon.com Inc.:

Amazon.com is the worlds largest online retailer with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company and named it after amazon river. Amazon basically started with online bookstore and gradually diversified into DVD, CD, MP3 download, software, video games, electronics, apprarels, furniture, toys, jewellery and food. All the fulfillment centers are closely located to airports for easy logistics.

Websites: www.amazon.com,www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca,www.amazon.cn,  www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.in and www.amazon.com.br.

Companies acquired:

Joyo.com
Bookpages ltd.
Telebook inc.  
Internet Movie database ltd.
PlanetAll.com
Junglee Corporation
Drugstore.com
Geoworks
Pets.com
LiveBid.com
Exchange.com
Bibliofind.com
Musicfile.com
Alexa Internet
Accept.com
HomeGrocer.com
Gear.com
Convergence Corporation
MindCorps Incorporated
Della.com
Ashford.com
Leep Technology inc.
Zappos.com
Snaptell
Talk Market
Foodista
Booktour.com
Lexcycle inc.
Yieldex
Abebooks
Bookfinder.com
Elastra corp
Box Office Mojo
Engine yard Inc.
Fabric.com
Love Film International
Without A Box inc.
Audible.com
Amie Street
Shopbop.com
Mobi Pocket
Book Surge LLC
CDNow
OurHouse.com
WineShopper.com
Kozmo.com

**there are many more acquisition done. Above mentioned are the best known.