Swoopo?

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Ankesh

Have you seen:
http://www.swoopo.com/

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001196.html

Pure evil genius!

Hi Ankesh,

Wow... That's pretty amazing. Especially when you "crunch" the numbers!

I guess my question would be... will this business work long term? I could be wrong, but I'm guessing it won't... I think after the initial excitement of a "new thing" has died, and people realize how much they're spending, they'll desert Swoopo and go back to traditional auction sites like eBay.

I agree, it is a bit like gambling. But I think you can get similar excitement for "better rates" at traditional auction sites... Since at regular auction websites, the "excitement" of bidding is free (unless you win), compared to Swoopo, where each bid is 75 cents.

Of course I could be wrong in my prediction. Human behavior doesn't always make sense!

Thanks for posting about it!

- Dien

P.S. Another thing is - on Swoopo, there seems to be no rational reason to bid on anything until there is about 1 or 2 seconds to go. On Swoopo, "sniping" is the only strategy that would make any sense. It's especially true since bidding is quite expensive (75 cents a bid), whereas on other auction sites (like eBay), bidding is free. On Swoopo, your 75-cent bid has no value unless you win, and you only have a realistic chance of winning if you snipe.