Did Trademe get too greedy?

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#1051417 22-May-2014 22:14

eBay could afford to run here for free for a year to attract users if they really wanted to be here. TM would find that hard to compete with I imagine. Along with proper buyer protection etc they'd be hard to beat if they truly wanted to be in NZ

jarledb

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#1051419 22-May-2014 22:21

Have been house hunting/lurking for a while now and I have discovered that most of the listings in the area we are looking have disappeared from Trademe, so they are obviously feeling the effect of their own greed.

Can find them on sites like realestate.co.nz and homehunter.co.nz so its not people stopping their listings, its the real estate agents moving them away from Trademe.

(Update, spelling and clarity)

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Glassboy

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#1051426 22-May-2014 22:38

It seems almost surreal watching people attack TradeMe and talk up Facebook. I'm sure the same people would be up in arms if it came to a discussion about how much tax Facebook pays in New Zealand.

loceff13

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#1051433 22-May-2014 22:49

ripdog:
That's a pretty sad view. TradeMe does not spend $159 on the costs of hosting your property listing - probably $5 at most for a very popular and long lasting listing. TradeMe is New Media, and of course they will beat Old Media in pricing - but that doesn't justify gigantic profit margins. They can jack their prices simply because they have no worthwhile competition. So yes, they did get greedy.

It isn't, why should they charge significantly less than a newspaper listing when they can provide just as many views(if not more) in far greater quality and via a better medium. As said estate agents have had sweetheart deals with TradeMe for a number of years with tiny fees compared to other advertising methods, once you get the market share you up the margin until the market no longer is willing to pay it, pretty standard.

If they burn those bridges and they go elsewhere they will still dominate private listings until they can attract real estate back in at a new rate.

jonathan18

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#1051441 22-May-2014 23:05

mattwnz: Look at other services like spotify who have just raised their prices.

Sorry to go off topic, but can you confirm what these changes are? I'm still being charged the same for Premium, but I can't see mention of the other mid priced plan(s?) they used to have - is that the change?

mattwnz

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#1051456 22-May-2014 23:34

jonathan18:
mattwnz: Look at other services like spotify who have just raised their prices.

Sorry to go off topic, but can you confirm what these changes are? I'm still being charged the same for Premium, but I can't see mention of the other mid priced plan(s?) they used to have - is that the change?

Sorry meant Netflix. Although it says existing customers will continue to pay existing prices for the time being.

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mattwnz

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#1051457 22-May-2014 23:36

loceff13:
ripdog:
That's a pretty sad view. TradeMe does not spend $159 on the costs of hosting your property listing - probably $5 at most for a very popular and long lasting listing. TradeMe is New Media, and of course they will beat Old Media in pricing - but that doesn't justify gigantic profit margins. They can jack their prices simply because they have no worthwhile competition. So yes, they did get greedy.

It isn't, why should they charge significantly less than a newspaper listing when they can provide just as many views(if not more) in far greater quality and via a better medium. As said estate agents have had sweetheart deals with TradeMe for a number of years with tiny fees compared to other advertising methods, once you get the market share you up the margin until the market no longer is willing to pay it, pretty standard.

If they burn those bridges and they go elsewhere they will still dominate private listings until they can attract real estate back in at a new rate.

The other thing is that agents are getting better value from listing on trademe than they used to when that initial deal was offered, as more people are online, and trademe now have apps which make viewing listings on devices like ipad easier.

jonathan18

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#1051458 22-May-2014 23:38

mattwnz:
jonathan18:
mattwnz: Look at other services like spotify who have just raised their prices.

Sorry to go off topic, but can you confirm what these changes are? I'm still being charged the same for Premium, but I can't see mention of the other mid priced plan(s?) they used to have - is that the change?

Sorry meant Netflix. Although it says existing customers will continue to pay existing prices for the time being.

Ah, yep I got that message a day or two ago, but at least the grandparenting is for something like two years. Not that I have a paid sub to Pandora, but I read their prices too are increasing.

mattwnz

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#1051472 23-May-2014 00:00

jonathan18:
mattwnz:
jonathan18:
mattwnz: Look at other services like spotify who have just raised their prices.

Sorry to go off topic, but can you confirm what these changes are? I'm still being charged the same for Premium, but I can't see mention of the other mid priced plan(s?) they used to have - is that the change?

Sorry meant Netflix. Although it says existing customers will continue to pay existing prices for the time being.

Ah, yep I got that message a day or two ago, but at least the grandparenting is for something like two years. Not that I have a paid sub to Pandora, but I read their prices too are increasing.

Although it sucks, you do expect prices to rise with inflation at least, as costs rise.

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#1051475 23-May-2014 00:07

mattwnz:
jonathan18:
mattwnz: Look at other services like spotify who have just raised their prices.

Sorry to go off topic, but can you confirm what these changes are? I'm still being charged the same for Premium, but I can't see mention of the other mid priced plan(s?) they used to have - is that the change?

Sorry meant Netflix. Although it says existing customers will continue to pay existing prices for the time being.

For two years.

ajobbins: I'm using Facebook less and less now anyway, as are many others I know. It might be too late for them anyway

Same same, mainly just log on to say happy birthday to people and post the odd pic. The novelty's worn off and if they go ahead with the video ad's they're talking about I'll be re-evaluating my continued usage.

greenbone: i think trademe does have reason for concern, not from wheedle ... from facebook

the BST groups on facebook have exploded in the last 6 months. the largest, hustle live, has over 70k members. dozens of items listed every hour. and hustle is one of many

imo trademe has greatly underestimated social integration. tagging friends on items you think they might like for example

plus of course the benefits of no fees and no restrictions on the items listed has helped made fb groups popular

Hand in hand with that is the higher likelihood of purchasing stolen items and/or getting shafted. That aside, you're spot on about what is occurring in that space.

surfisup1000

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#1051480 23-May-2014 00:45

Geektastic: eBay could afford to run here for free for a year to attract users if they really wanted to be here. TM would find that hard to compete with I imagine. Along with proper buyer protection etc they'd be hard to beat if they truly wanted to be in NZ

My opinion is that ebay would fail to break into NZ even if they offered 'free' forever.

One of Trademes advantages is the ownership of trader histories. People have spent years building up their reputation and this leads to a reluctance to move to a new provider.

But , why should a traders history belong to trademe? Just as baycorp does not own a persons credit rating!!

Maybe one way to loosen trademes monopoly is for the government to pass a law making trader history public record.

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Glassboy

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#1051537 23-May-2014 08:52

surfisup1000:
Geektastic: eBay could afford to run here for free for a year to attract users if they really wanted to be here. TM would find that hard to compete with I imagine. Along with proper buyer protection etc they'd be hard to beat if they truly wanted to be in NZ

My opinion is that ebay would fail to break into NZ even if they offered 'free' forever.

One of Trademes advantages is the ownership of trader histories. People have spent years building up their reputation and this leads to a reluctance to move to a new provider.

But , why should a traders history belong to trademe? Just as baycorp does not own a persons credit rating!!

Maybe one way to loosen trademes monopoly is for the government to pass a law making trader history public record.

So you're suggesting that the Government creates a law that contravenes the Privacy Act (and probably others) to seize data from a New Zealand company (that has a record as a good corporate citizen and employer), and gives that data to foreign companies who pay little or no tax in New Zealand.

surfisup1000

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#1051562 23-May-2014 09:33

Glassboy:
surfisup1000:
Geektastic: eBay could afford to run here for free for a year to attract users if they really wanted to be here. TM would find that hard to compete with I imagine. Along with proper buyer protection etc they'd be hard to beat if they truly wanted to be in NZ

My opinion is that ebay would fail to break into NZ even if they offered 'free' forever.

One of Trademes advantages is the ownership of trader histories. People have spent years building up their reputation and this leads to a reluctance to move to a new provider.

But , why should a traders history belong to trademe? Just as baycorp does not own a persons credit rating!!

Maybe one way to loosen trademes monopoly is for the government to pass a law making trader history public record.

So you're suggesting that the Government creates a law that contravenes the Privacy Act (and probably others) to seize data from a New Zealand company (that has a record as a good corporate citizen and employer), and gives that data to foreign companies who pay little or no tax in New Zealand.

No, I'm saying trading history is like a persons credit rating and should thus be public and obtainable by a 3rd party if requested.

I'm not sure how this goes against the privacy act. It would work just like credit ratings do today, and that does not seem to breach the privacy act.

The whole trademe monopoly thing is going to come up in future and trademe will need a strategy to address that.

Just like it has come up with sky/telecom.

dpw

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#1051564 23-May-2014 09:38

ripdog:
ajobbins: The reality is that even with the new pricing model, Trade Me is still incredibly cheap for agents compared to legacy forms of advertising like newspapers.

Agents had it good for a long time, paying as low as $1 per listing at one point in the past. And as always, they were billing their clients for the service, and usually at much more than their own cost.

$159 is NOTHING in the advertising budget, especially for the exposure Trade Me gets it - especially when you can pass the cost onto the vendor.

What would $159 get you in a newspaper? Probably not even a 4x3 ad in the local paper for 1 day.

That's a pretty sad view. TradeMe does not spend $159 on the costs of hosting your property listing - probably $5 at most for a very popular and long lasting listing. TradeMe is New Media, and of course they will beat Old Media in pricing - but that doesn't justify gigantic profit margins. They can jack their prices simply because they have no worthwhile competition. So yes, they did get greedy.

This is one of my bugbears. The cost of a listing is far beyond hosting. The cost of running Trade Me is far beyond sticking a bunch of servers in a room or three and letting users at it.

The value of any given item is far beyond the cost of said item.

Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion.

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SpookyAwol

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#1051566 23-May-2014 09:44

A lot has been said about trademe pricing and how real estate are complaining.
Consider it a smoke screen for how much real estate are actually ripping off the seller......

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