You know what, that's actually an interesting comment he made. Lots of people who might not have started a business 15 years ago, are 'in business' thanks to Ebay. Some of them probably do the business thing, with a corporation and taxes and all, but I'll bet a lot of people either work it 'under the table' or as a side-income/side-interest, undisclosed kind of thing.
According to Ebay's most recent press release for Q2-04:
net revenues 773.4 million
transaction revenues 751.7 million
114 million registered users
332 million new listings
8 BILLION dollar gross merchandise listings [the "total value of all successfully closed listings", or, sales.]
Again, those are Quarterly figures. Not bad at all.
There are 48 million active users, but that counts bidders, buyers, and sellers, so I would assume the actual seller count is much less. And yes, there are certainly plenty of examples of High School Bob selling his video games one a month, but again, there are a lot of 'ebay stores' and power sellers who are 'professional' at it.
They have 12 categories that generate 1 billion or more, in annualized GMV.
If nothing else, Ebay has made 'starting your own business' a whole lot easier, cheaper and more accessible.
Ebay's making money, and people on Ebay are making money. Will we find the next Bill Gates on Ebay? Doubtful. But Ebay is not in the same realm as a garage sale or flea market or lemonade stand.