Well, not exactly, but pretty close. According to an article posted by TechCrunch,
a new, free e-trade site was launched during a recent TechCrunch ‘Hackathon’ (http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/11/watch-the-techcrunch-disrupt-hackathon-live-2/).
This newly launched Twitter business, @Shopr.com, coordinates those hoping to sell and those looking to buy in specific regions or cities, similar to Craigslist. A quote from the article states, “The service’s founders tell me that in their initial research currently around 7,000 Tweets per hour relate to commerce and people looking to buy and sell items (over 5,000 selling-related Tweets are sent every hour).”
As an avid Craigslist user myself, I love free advertising and no commissions. I’ve paid for most of my required books for college by buying and selling all my books at discount rates. I shop around on such sites as Half.com, Craigslist.com, Amazon.com and Textbooks.com to buy my books and I sell them as soon as I’m done using them. All in all, I’ve pretty much broken even, give or take thirty dollars. This is far cheaper than buying e-books or renting books and both leave you with nothing tangible to sell.
The article goes on to state that sellers can tweet their wares on their own site and go on about their day. @Shopr mines data from Twitter and matches the two parties, notifying the seller if an interested buyer tweets similar or matching information. If the seller hopes to have the item found by @Shopr, the seller must clearly describe the item for sale, where it’s being sold and the asking price. However, the seller can also post their items directly at #!/shoprsell.
Buyers can go to #!/shoprbuy and post items they are searching for or simply tweet about the item(s) on their own page, again listing particulars. Buyers, too, can also go directly to @Shopr’s site to poke around.
Unbelievable as it sounds, my television died the day before the Superbowl® one year. Need I say more? Thanks to Craigslist, by the end of the day, we had a TV (which, as we all know, is cheaper than a divorce). It will be interesting to see how Twitter’s @Shopr competes against Craigslist as both platforms use the same process. Ultimately, it boils down to how quickly the seller would like to make a sale and how quickly the buyer needs the item.
(From TechCrunch) http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/11/shopr-connects-buyers-and-sellers-on-twitter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
Interesting wish I would have tried this out when I started school..
ReplyDelete