'Social auction' Trade Me alternative finds its feet

Things are starting to move for BuddyBid, the new auction service set up by Auckland entrepreneurs Neil Campbell and Ken Brickley

NBR rather likes the cut of this duo's jib.

Rather than take on Trade Me head-on, they've created BuddyBid, social auction app for Facebook.

The platform is ready-made. And while other Trade Me wannabees are pretty much limited to NZ's borders, BuddyBid has the world - or at least the 1 billion souls on Facebook - as its potential market.

You can use BuddyBid to auction an item to your Facebook friends or, if you've a company, use a white-label version of the app to run an auction under your own brand - as Cruise Sale Finder just in BuddyBid's first largest BuddyBid auction of its type so far (a $A9000 cruise sold for $A7000).

"It was the first that went for more than $1000 and more importantly the first where we were able to measure all the viral metrics carefully. We have customers auctioning off all sorts, from jewellery sales in the US to rental camper vans in Spain," the co-founder tells NBR Online.

"It's a very levelling playing field for even small brands who've done well accumulating a strong and active social following." 

The service is free during its current beta (test) phase. Fees will be charged after the commercial launch.

The auction format provides a point of difference with Facebook's fixed-priced daily deal type service, and the campaigns sometimes run by companies to give you a discount on a product or service as a bribe to "Like" it on the social network.

Brickley has just quit his ad agency job to focus on BuddyBid full-time (Campbell remains CEO of real-life auction house Webbs - not a bad place to cross-promote the pair's online venture).

A lot of his effort is is focused on a capital raising round.

"We're in discussions with many US companies on several fronts," Brickley told NBR. He now sports a US number on his business card (along with his US contacts) and is shuttling between Auckland and San Francisco.

Brickley no Bay area newbie. Most of his family is in California. And, more, he's a former vice president at Zeacom, the Auckland-founded telephony software company that sold to Canadian interests last year for around $US30 million (making it yet another in a long line of tech companies that have snuffled millions in taxpayer grants only to be bought by an offshore company).

It's very, very early days for BuddyBid. 

But Brickely has already pleged to keep it local - if he can.

"Whichever funding source we choose, ideally I would like to keep the entity within New Zealand," he told NBR. 

"I've been involved in two other companies where we had to move the corporate structures to Delaware in order to accept capital from US investors. That's not ideal for improving roads and schools here in New Zealand.  This country is a very impressive draw card for smart engineers and I'd love to see the ecosystem for global startups develop further here."

And what of Kim Dotcom's pledge to list items using Buddy Bid?

"All iin due time. We're in touch and he has a schedule of events planned," Brickley says.

While waiting for the next round of free publicity from the giant German, Brickley has plenty to keep him going. Beyond the money search, he's looking at opportunities in vertical markets including franchises, charities, celebrity management, TV/movie studios and advertising agencies.  

Follow @ChrisKeall

chris@chriskeall.com

GUYS, GUYS, DO TRY AND LOOK A LITTLE MORE TECH CRUNCH: BuddyBid co-founders Ken Brickely (left) and Neil Campbell. 

Kim Dotcom talks up 'cool new Trade Me alternative'

Scroll down for a Q&A with Buddy Bid co-founder Neil Campbell

Oct 23, 2012: The likes of Wheedle, Geta and listselltrade are going for a full frontal assault on Trade Me.

But another startup is taking a different angle altogether – and it caught the eye of Kim Dotcom after a chance meeting with its founders.

"It's called 'BuddyBid' and it allows you to create an auction on Facebook," Dotcom explained to NBR ONLINE.

"It's a cool new alternative to Trade Me and eBay with a social component. 

"You can share your auctions with your Facebook friends. You can also allow them to see what you are currently bidding on," Dotcom says.

It looks like a nifty concept – and, unlike Wheedle and co – it's not restricted to largely local appeal.

Anybody with a Facebook account can use BuddyBid for a quick friends-and-family auction. And, in fact, it got its first media name check after HuffPo's UK managing editor used it to sell a second-hand baby buggy then put the app in front of the editor of the trendy TechCrunch.

In some circumstances, I could see the appeal of circumventing the full Trade Me rigmarole. While I've sold dozens of items on Trade Me, and every single time the buyer has turned out to be polite and friendly, there is always the lurking stress that you will encounter someone hostile, or at least a bit toey.

Using Facebook means the BuddyBid guys have a ready-made platform, with one billion already signed up. Of course, getting their attention will be harder. And I also wonder if the concept will be easy for other Facebook app developers to copy. 

One report had Dotcom auctioning his inflatable tank through BuddyBid. That was a bit premature. The German millionaire has nothing on BuddyBid at the moment, but told NBR he would list some items over the coming weeks (follow him on Facebook here). He sees it as the next big thing.

Q&A with BuddyBid co-founder Neil Campbell

NBR: How do you plan to monetise the service?

NC: Think of BuddyBid as most of the functionality of Trade Me wrapped up in a Facebook app (the same business model as Victoria Ransom's Wildfire), offering businesses a way to extract the most possible value from their Facebook Page.  

Similar to Wildfire, the pricing model is a simple monthly fee with premium features for those business wishing to white label a custom branded version of the app, or get access to other proprietary advertising features.

Responding to demand from our early market research, we decided to extend this "marketplace disaggregation" out to individuals. 

Many times, you want to try to sell something but don't care to see it posted on an open marketplace right next to a cheaper knock-off of the same item from China, often selling "new" for a fraction of the price.  

BuddyBid lets you leverage your network of fans or friends without competitive products vying for the attention of your advocates.  

The timeline app is also a growth accelerator for BuddyBid.

From a personal perspective I’ve looked for a long time at how a business such as Webb’s might extend into the online auction space but found few packaged solutions with a built-in audience. 

At the same time I was approached regularly about the importance of having a social communications strategy including fans on Facebook.

But my question here has always been, how do I convert this to actual revenue? 

My customers come to Webb’s to trade. With BuddyBid we have answered this by creating an app that allows me to retain my company’s brand values while offering a viral transaction tool. 

There are other longer-erm ad revenue opportunities for BuddyBid where businesses or individuals will be able to pay to amplify the reach of engagement with their product. 

This amplification to friends of friends (or anyone for that matter) can be done with extraordinary precision, targeting only those people with interests related to the item you're selling. This is something that can only be done inside of Facebook – think of selling on Facebook as precision-word-of-mouth-at-scale.  

This is a subtle and fundamentally different approach to advertising for businesses and one that my business partner, Ken Brickley, has proven over the past year using Facebook's premium ad platform for clients such as Harvey Norman. What we're talking about here simply hasn't been done anywhere in the world yet.  We have started with a minimal / viable app that we hope will evolve via the feedback we will no doubt get from users.
 

NBR: How long has the app been live?

NC: Six days  – after six months of development.

When Facebook gave us the green light we decided to flicked the switch and expose the app to live market feedback.

We’ve had some good honest feedback and are polishing the basic app as we go. No major issues so far.

We have significant server capacity set up in Ireland and San Fran, with four other locations around the world ready to turn on within minutes of demand from those parts of the world.

NBR: Has HuffPo's UK managing editor given you a namecheck online after using BuddyBid to sell his baby buggy?

NC: He has not, but has been in touch with me direct (via Facebook) and has put the app in front of the editor of TechCrunch.

NBR: Do you worry it's relatively easy to copy your idea?

NC: The fast follower tactic is something we have considered. We believe the online space offers tangible first mover advantage. This has be proven more than once and in recent times. To cement this advantage, we have planned a development road map for the BuddyBid app that can be reprioritised if user feedback requires this.