"FaceTrade" - My Trademe competitor

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Forums › Startups › "FaceTrade" - My Trademe competitor

bnolan

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#119160 22-May-2013 19:04

I'm not sure if this is the right place... but I got all motivated and hacked what I think is a viable Trademe competitor the other weekend. I thought I'd get some feedback here before I expose myself to ridicule by releasing it. I wouldn't call it Facetrade either, that's not allowed by the Facebook TOS. :)

The things that I've done differently:

Facebook authentication required to buy or sell (but not browse)
Show how many NZ-based Facebook friends a seller has - this is a sort of 'social trust metric'
Simplified listing creation (one page with inline file uploading)
Buy now only (I did this to keep things simple, could add auctions later)
Cross-posting of listings onto your Facebook page, so that your friends can see what you're selling
Discount for friends - so if a friend buys your item, you can optionally give them a 5, 10, 20% discount
No listing fees, unlimited photos, success fee of ?% if someone outside your friend circle buys your item

The idea comes from a friend who was selling up all his stuff and heading off overseas, he found the Trademe listing process to onerous, plus shipping goods etc etc, he just wanted to be able to quickly list a bunch of things and sell them to people who could come and pick them up. I also saw 'soldsie', which lets people with Facebook pages easily list and sell stuff on their pages, and I just thought, a direct frontal assault on Trademe (like Wheedle is doing) is retarded, but doing something that helps people easily sell stuff to friends could be a way to get started.

Anyway - what do people think? Shall I release it and let you all ridicule me? ;)

Some photos...

Browse:

Listing details:

Sellers page:

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#823735 22-May-2013 19:54

Can you think of a better name?

gzt

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#823744 22-May-2013 20:14

Totally awesome. Can you do one for Google Plus as well? : ).

Off topic, I just started using Plus/Hangouts. I expect more use from it than Facebook where the lack of filtering does not work for me. Not that Google is any less evil. But Google's plans for world domination are a whole lot more coherent than Facebook's lol. ; ).

I have to tell you number of friends in geo is not a great trust metric. There are many sellers of 'friends' in any quantity and attributes you require. Maybe develop something based on how many friends are happy purchasers or overlapping set relationships.

Nice effort. The key is time to answer questions and resolve issues as it heats up.

CruciasNZ

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#823758 22-May-2013 20:31

Looks good to me.

My 2c would be to say scrap all fees and use advert revenue to reimburse yourself. TradeMe fees are rather spectacular these days, so the double allure of zero fees and Facebook integration could work for you. You'd need to look into blocking ad-blockers somehow, like embed a banner advert alongside the photo; if they want to see the photo they have to see the advert etc (just make them as non-intrusive as possible!)

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amanzi

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#823767 22-May-2013 20:44

CruciasNZ: My 2c would be to say scrap all fees and use advert revenue to reimburse yourself.

This sounds like a good idea to me too - you wouldn't need to do any payment handling or e-commerce on the site at all.

Overall, I like your idea. I don't use Facebook at all, but people who do would use this. Needs a catchy name though, something that can be turned into a verb.

kiwitrc

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#823777 22-May-2013 20:57

ArseSwap?

bnolan

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#823779 22-May-2013 20:59

johnr: Can you think of a better name?

I'd love a better name, facetrade was just a joke, the name is configurable in a variable. :)

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bnolan

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#823781 22-May-2013 21:00

I have to tell you number of friends in geo is not a great trust metric. There are many sellers of 'friends' in any quantity and attributes you require. Maybe develop something based on how many friends are happy purchasers or overlapping set relationships.

I didn't realise that. I know there are spam followers you can buy on twitter, but because it's so hard to create a facebook account (you have to get mobile phone confirmed these days), I didn't realise you could buy big wadges of friends.

I still think you'd have to have encourage people to trade safely, and you'd need a fraud detection team (another good reason not to actually release the product), but I thought 'x friends in new zealand' was better than nothing.

bnolan

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#823792 22-May-2013 21:03

CruciasNZ: My 2c would be to say scrap all fees and use advert revenue to reimburse yourself. TradeMe fees are rather spectacular these days, so the double allure of zero fees and Facebook integration could work for you. You'd need to look into blocking ad-blockers somehow, like embed a banner advert alongside the photo; if they want to see the photo they have to see the advert etc (just make them as non-intrusive as possible!)

Interesting idea. I run zoomin.co.nz as a side venture, and that gets quite a lot of traffic, but the ad revenue isn't enough to be a full time job (not by a long shot). I sort of think that if you provide a valuable service you should be able to charge for it, the problem with something niche like a new zealand classifieds site is that you'll never have the kind of scale of facebook or google where you can survive purely off ads. :)

mattwnz

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#823802 22-May-2013 21:21

Does it also come with millions of potential visitors to view the auction like trademe? That is where all the others fail. Free listings etc means nothing when there is no one there to view it.

freitasm

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#823813 22-May-2013 21:30

Do not scrap fees. People block ads. You are offering them a service, make sure your product is something they need and will want to pay for.

If you lunch something free now it will be harder later to charge anything.

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gzt

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#823814 22-May-2013 21:30

bnolan:
CruciasNZ: My 2c would be to say scrap all fees and use advert revenue to reimburse yourself. TradeMe fees are rather spectacular these days, so the double allure of zero fees and Facebook integration could work for you. You'd need to look into blocking ad-blockers somehow, like embed a banner advert alongside the photo; if they want to see the photo they have to see the advert etc (just make them as non-intrusive as possible!)

Interesting idea. I run zoomin.co.nz as a side venture, and that gets quite a lot of traffic, but the ad revenue isn't enough to be a full time job (not by a long shot). I sort of think that if you provide a valuable service you should be able to charge for it, the problem with something niche like a new zealand classifieds site is that you'll never have the kind of scale of facebook or google where you can survive purely off ads. :)

The difference is the advertising is going to be directly related to the content in your case. Result - CTR will be very high. If I click for more detail on a FaceTrade item I sure will be interested to see advertising for new items of the same type.

I will probably have a close look at the offer and see how it compares to the second hand item, etc. I do that on TradeMe often enough and it does not even have advertising.

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gzt

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#823816 22-May-2013 21:32

Additionally, you can charge sellers to turn the advertising off. ; ). Business model innovation ftw : ).

gzt

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#823821 22-May-2013 21:40

freitasm: Do not scrap fees. People block ads. You are offering them a service, make sure your product is something they need and will want to pay for.

If you lunch something free now it will be harder later to charge anything.

Ad-blocking is far higher on tech sites than in the general population. Imho the biggest reason users choose to block ads are because many ads are irrelevant or intentionally distracting. [Edit: and often offensive..]

[Edit: I should note that Geekzone works hard to keep the advertising relevant and inoffensive. On a personal note, I do not run an ad-blocker]

johnr

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#823826 22-May-2013 21:49

freitasm: Do not scrap fees. People block ads. You are offering them a service, make sure your product is something they need and will want to pay for.

If you lunch something free now it will be harder later to charge anything.

Can I have some bacon for lunch thanks?

AnAgileBeast

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#823837 22-May-2013 22:00

freitasm: Do not scrap fees. People block ads. You are offering them a service, make sure your product is something they need and will want to pay for.

If you lunch something free now it will be harder later to charge anything.

free lunch, yum.

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