The story
2005–2014
The site was launched in 2005 by iospace, a small company composed of Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik. The initial version had taken two and a half months to build. Later, Jared Tarbell joined the team. Former NPR executive Maria Thomas joined as COO in 2008; she was then promoted to CEO before departing from Etsy in December 2009. Robert Kalin resumed his role as CEO from December 2009 until July 2011. Investors included Sean Meenan, Albert Wenger, Spencer and Judson Ain, Union Square Ventures, and founders of Flickr and Delicious.
Kalin explained why he named the site Etsy in a 2010 interview with Reader's Digest, saying, "I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 ½ and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say etsi a lot. It means 'oh, yes'. And in Latin and French, it means 'what if'."
In Etsy's first year, it attracted attention for frequently adding new tools and functionality to the site to help sellers gain exposure and traffic, including Adobe Flash-based visualizations and a taxonomy of categories with tags. Etsy passed $1.7 million in sales in May 2007. On July 29, Etsy had its one-millionth sale and anticipated its two-millionth sale would occur mid-December 2007. In November 2007, buyers spent $4.3 million purchasing 300,000 items for sale on Etsy, an increase of 43 percent from October 2007. In June 2007, it expected to be profitable by the fall, but in December 2007 it was not a profitable company. In January 2008, Etsy received an additional $27 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media, and Jim Breyer.
In February 2008, trouble at eBay, including a strike by some dissatisfied sellers, brought speculation that Etsy could be an increasing competitor. At the same time, however, some Etsy sellers expressed discontentment with how Etsy was handling complaints about stores. At the time, a comparison of the two websites included complaints that on Etsy, items are difficult to find, the interface "feels slow", and the buying and selling process is United States-centric. Other reviewers enjoyed using Etsy's specialized search options, including the "Shop Local" tool.
In July 2008, Rob Kalin ceded the position of CEO to Maria Thomas. Some longtime Etsy employees left the company in August 2008, including founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire. In September 2008, Etsy hired Chad Dickerson, who formerly worked at Yahoo!, as Chief Technology Officer. The company acknowledged concerns about vendors selling other people's work as their own.
In April 2009, users organized an "etsyday" promotion on Twitter that brought extra attention to the site. As of May 2009, it had approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month, possibly boosted by consumer interest in cheaper and more personalized goods due to the United States recession.
In March 2010, Kalin said that the company is profitable and "plans to go public, though not until at least next year". Financial statements required to be filed by Etsy in order to go public show that due to reinvestment of annually increasing gross profits in marketing, product development, and management, the company has not reported a net profit as of 2015.
In December 2010, Etsy said it had seven million registered users, and that it would continue to focus on a personal community feel as it grows larger, as that is part of what distinguishes it from eBay.
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In March 2011, Etsy "introduced a Facebook-style social networking system called People Search...to help buyers and sellers connect with each other and become friends". By doing so, Etsy made any past purchase with feedback easily searchable, which caused many complaints. Etsy then made changes to the site to better guard information regarding users' purchases.
In July 2011, Chad Dickerson, CTO since September 2008, became CEO, upon the firing of Rob Kalin. Later CTOs were Kellan Elliot-McCrea and John Allspaw.
In April 2012, a newspaper article about Etsy covered its fraud detection efforts; Etsy had been criticized in the past for inconsistently applying its rules about items having to be handmade. Later in April 2012, the writer of Regretsy, a popular blog, did independent research into a specific featured vendor, Ecologica Malibu, and found evidence to accuse the vendor of being a reseller, which would be against the Etsy Terms of Service. The vendor asserted that it was in line with the Terms of Service, stating that the shop had simply failed to identify itself as a "collective" that included the work of several individuals, and many Etsy community members posted on the Etsy forum expressing unhappiness with the action (or lack of action) taken by Etsy. As of June 2012, the vendor's account is no longer active on Etsy.
In May 2012, Etsy raised $40 million in Series F funding, and announced the company had become a B Corp. This B Lab certification lapsed in 2017. Etsy's 2012 funds went towards expanding Etsy in international markets, including France, Germany, and Australia.
On October 1, 2013, Dickerson held an online Town Hall Meeting to announce that Etsy would now permit factory-made goods and drop shipping, provided the seller either designed or hired designers of the items, disclosed to Etsy their factory, disclosed that they used factories and took "ownership" of the process. In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word "handmade" should be redefined to encompass factory made. Dickerson described the website as "a platform that provides meaning to people, and an opportunity to validate their art, their craft".
In June 2014, Etsy purchased A Little Market, a French e-commerce site for handmade goods, foods, and wine, for a mix of cash and stock valued at less than $100 million. At the time the acquisition was the company's largest.
2015: IPO and investor lawsuit
On March 3, 2015, Etsy announced that it had filed for a $100 million IPO. As of 2015, Etsy generated transactions worth US$1.93 billion on its platform, which has 54 million members. Etsy went public on the Nasdaq on April 16, 2015, selling 13.3 million shares, while other stockholders including venture capital firms such as Accel and Acton Capital Partners were selling the rest. The company's valuation was $1.8 billion and raised $237 million in IPO proceeds. Less than a month later, Etsy stock dropped more than 8%. The stock closed at $30 on its first day of trading on April 16 and dropped down to $20.32 as of May 11.
Shortly after the IPO in 2015, a group of investors filed a class action lawsuit against Etsy claiming fraud. The suit claimed that Etsy's CEO and officers failed to disclose numerous problems with the site which could affect the stock price, among them that "more than 5 percent of all merchandise for sale on Etsy’s website may be either counterfeit or constitute trademark or copyright infringement" and that "brands are increasingly pursuing sellers on Etsy for trademark or copyright infringement, jeopardizing listing fees and commissions". The suit also claimed that Etsy management knew of the rampant trademark and copyright infringement but did little to stop it, and in fact worked to hide this information from potential investors.
2016–present
In November 2016, Etsy disclosed that it paid US$32.5 million to purchase Blackbird Technologies, a startup that developed AI software used for shopping context/search applications. After experiencing a first-quarter loss in May 2017, Etsy replaced its chief executive and cut 8% of its workforce. In May 2017, Board member Josh Silverman was appointed CEO over Chad Dickerson, citing pressure from shareholders and poor profits.
In July 2019, Etsy acquired the music based marketplace Reverb for $275 million.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, shares in Etsy more than quadrupled. Equity analyst at D.A. Davidson Tom Forte stated the pandemic gave customers incentive to return to the website multiple times, rather than the usual occasional purchase of a unique product. Non-medical face masks accounted for around 11% of gross-merchandise sales in the third quarter, selling roughly 24 million.
On June 2, 2021, Etsy announced that it had agreed to acquire shopping app Depop, the fashion resell marketplace for $1.63 billion. Depop was later sold to eBay for $1.2 billion in 2026.
In most locations where Etsy Payments is not available, new shops are unable to on board to Etsy. As of April 26, 2021, most sellers opening new shops on Etsy are required to on board with Etsy Payments, which brings limitations on creating new shops in some countries.
In June 2022, Etsy announced the August launch of a purchase protection program for buyers and sellers. The company stated that an item that arrives damaged, does not arrive or does not match a description, will be refunded in full for the buyer. Etsy also reported it would invest $25 million to cover the refunds for cases where the seller is not at fault for item damage or loss.
In December 2023, Etsy laid off approximately 225 employees, or 11% of its workforce.
In January 2024, Etsy introduced "Gift Mode", powered by OpenAI GPT-4, which allows users to generate gift guides based on survey questions related to the recipient's demographic and interests.
On September 29, 2025, Etsy announced that it will switch its stock listing from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange on October 10.
In October 2025, Etsy announced that it will promote Chief Growth Officer Kruti Patel Goyal to become Etsy's CEO starting January 1, 2026, ending Josh Silverman's eight years in the position. Silverman will become executive chair through the end of 2026.
In February 2026, Etsy announced that eBay would acquire its fashion resale marketplace Depop for approximately $1.2 billion. Etsy said the sale would allow it to focus on its core marketplace. At the end of 2025, Depop had approximately $1 billion in gross merchandise sales, 7 million active buyers and more than 3 million active sellers.
In July 2026, Etsy completed the sale of Depop to eBay. Etsy received approximately $1.4 billion in aggregate cash, consisting of the $1,2 billion purchase price plus $200 million in purchase price adjustments and interest. The following month Etsy announced plans to lay off approximately 220 employees, or about 12% of its workforce, as part of an organizational restructuring.
From Wikipedia’s article on Etsy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6