

2011 The Year of Marketplaces and How to Win - rishi
http://www.gettingmoreawesome.com/2011/02/2011-year-of-marketplace-and-how-to-win.html

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christopherslee
I wonder if you can always turn a double-marketplace problem into a situation
where the buyers and seller is the same person.

Or, if it means figuring out a way to change your business model to make sure
they do become the same person.

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andyangelos
There are some success stories demonstrating that creating a buyer-seller
hybrid is not always necessary. Take <http://www.uship.com/> for example. Most
ebay sellers and small business needing to ship packages will rarely have
experience (or interest) in the trucking industry, but still need reliable
delivery. The truckers using the service may list an item to be shipped in the
future, but are most likely not the typical customer on the site.

The uship team just found two groups that were not paired and probably did a
tremendous amount of legwork to create activity on both sides. I think
sometimes you can just replace "they need to be the same person" with "we need
to be solving a specific problem."

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justinchen
That's a really going point but I wonder how true it is for Odesk. It would
seem people on there are either looking for work or looking for workers. I've
only been on 1 side of that equation.

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rishi
that is why they have to rely on SEM. They have to make sure that freelancers
can find work and clients can find freelancers. You need both sides to win.

