Billpoint
Billpoint was the name of a person-to-person founded in 1998 and purchased in 1999 by online auctioneer . It was founded by , , , , and . It obtained venture funding from in February 1999. Billpoint’s website was taken offline while eBay integrated Billpoint into its auction service, and it did not reappear until 2000, when it was relaunched as a joint venture with bank.
During this interval, online payment service PayPal was launched, rapidly becoming popular with eBay’s customers. Billpoint and eBay spent much of the next two years trying to overtake PayPal, but with mixed results. In July 2002, eBay CEO agreed to the acquisition of PayPal with its CEO Peter Thiel. When the deal was closed in October 2002, eBay began the process of phasing out Billpoint.<ref name=”cnet001″ /> The shutdown was completed in early 2003.