Etsy

I heard art is dead.

Is that so? But I can, for sure, tell crafts and vintage items aren’t dead yet, and Etsy is the living proof of that. 

Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik’s small business, iospace, introduced Etsy in 2005. Later, Jared Tarbell also joined the group.

Maria Thomas, a former executive at NPR, joined Etsy in 2008 as COO, rose to CEO, then resigned in December 2009. From December 2009 to July 2011, Robert Kalin was back in charge as CEO.

Over 100 million goods were available in Etsy’s marketplace as of December 31, 2022.

Despite how catchy the name is, many have frequently questioned what it means.

Rob Kalin, the company’s founder, ultimately disclosed the answer in a Reader’s Digest interview from January 2010: 

“I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini’s 8 ½and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say ‘etsi’ a lot. It means ‘oh, yes.’ And in Latin, it means ‘and if.'”

Etsy generated $13.3 billion in gross merchandise sales (GMS) on the platform in 2022. A total of US$2.6 billion was made in 2022.

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