UPData: On-Line markets - VC Point of View

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On-Line markets – VC Point of View

...My old college buddy, Dave Beisel (also a VC, currently at Venrock), seems to share my interest in the space, as you will see here. In his post Dave points out that the eBay approach to the market-making business model (taking a chunk of each transaction completed through the service) should serve as an example for all those entering the market. Certainly this is the most viable of economic models in this space.

... in my experience, there is one more lesson that we should port from eBay to other market making applications. Just as eBay has created a true sense of community for its users, so must any new, vertically focused cousins. After all, a community is a place for people to come together for interaction, to exchange information, to build trust and credibility, and to trade goods and services. That’s how it works in the community where I live, and that’s how it should work in my online communities as well…I socialize with and buy things from people and businesses I know and trust, people who I know will give me quality, honest advice, especially if I am pondering a complicated transaction in an area I don’t know well (e.g. remodeling my house). Why would I behave any differently on the web?

...So to sum up, the vertical markets I am looking for will:

1. Create liquidity by connecting me with a qualified, fragmented base of purveyors of some highly specific good(s) or service(s).

2. Facilitate transactions between me and those same sellers.

3. Allow me to interact both with the people from whom I may buy, and with other buyers contemplating transactions similar to mine.

4. Help me make an informed decision about what it is I might buy, or educate me when I must enter into a transaction about which I do not feel a comfortably familiarity.

If you see one of these, please send them my way…

Dear Jon Seeber from Updata Partners,

look no more. BitWine is here!

Check our New vertical: http://nutrition.BitWine.com

To read all: http://blog.updata.com/public/item/179040

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