The story
The website was created in 1999 by René van Mullem, who officially registered the domain name on 19 May 1999. Shortly after its launch, 17-year-old programmer Robin Schuil joined the project as its first employee and key developer, serving as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and primary technical architect. The first item listed on the platform was a computer modem. The website's signature orange (terra) background color was inspired by a painting of Vincent van Gogh, chosen because computers were often located in living rooms at the time and the founders wanted a warm, non-disruptive color.
Initially, posting classified ads was offered as a free service. The site quickly grew in popularity and started attracting many visitors that posted more and more classified ads. At the end of 1999 or early 2000, Van Mullem sold the website Marktplaats.nl for ƒ600,000 (approximately €273,000) to Het Goed, a Dutch national chain of charity shops based in Emmeloord and led by Bob Crébas. Under Het Goed's management, the site grew explosively.
On November 10, 2004, Het Goed sold the website for €225 million to American e-commerce giant eBay.
By 2010, the platform's users were posting over 260,000 classified ads every day, and the platform hosted over 6 million active ads, attracting over 6 million unique monthly visitors.
In July 2020, Adevinta announced its acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group (the advertising division of eBay, which included Marktplaats) in a $9.2 billion transaction. The deal was officially finalized and completed on June 25, 2021, after clearing final regulatory hurdles with the Austrian and British competition authorities.
By 2024, on its 25th anniversary, Marktplaats had grown to attract over 8 million unique monthly visitors and processed approximately 350,000 new listings per day, with more than 18.7 million active advertisements live on the site at any given time.
From Wikipedia’s article on Marktplaats.nl, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4