quick looks
Quick Look: Mosoma
16/07/07 21:38 Filed in: Quick
Looks
Note:
Quick Looks is a new feature spotlighting applications or services that are too new for a full review, but have a strong underlying premise. The idea is to take a "quick look" at the simple basis of the application and the people behind it. It is less about what the application is now, and more about what it could become down the road. Mosoma is the first application in Quick Looks. It is a social networking auction application, but it is too new to truly evaluate how well it works. The Facebook version currently only has a few items up for auction. If and when the site has more users, Is it Contagious will return for a full review.
The Pitch:
Social
networking+auctions+mobile
technology=Mosoma. Actually the name
stands for ""Mobile Social
Marketplace" (Mo=Mobile, So=Social,
Ma=Marketplace). The hook is pretty
simple "why trade with strangers on
E-bay when you can trade with people
you know on Facebook?" The setup is
actually closer to Facebook's own
Classifieds application than to
E-bay, and that is a good thing.
Adding an item is straight forward,
and afterwards it's possible to
include more pictures, blog entries,
easily answer questions, and there
is a rating system to (hopefully)
keep people honest. It looks like
once an auction is won the parties
can work out the payment method.
Mosoma started as a stand alone site
for campus specific auctions, and
the current payment model suggests
that is probably still the target
market. Buy a tv from someone in a
nearby dorm room, and walk down the
hall to pay him and get the tv (see
606Tech's look at the
old site).
They have covered most of the standard features one would expect with a legitimate online auction site: watch lists, bid history, user ratings, friend's items, ect. The original site included Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) capabilities to monitor and communicate through cell phones. It is unclear whether they have been able to integrate those options into the platform. Presumably there will also be ways to highlight items up for auction, though there is not much need to now with very few items for sale (it appears to be a buyer's market for old biology and chemistry books).
Creators:
The guys behind Mosoma are the father-son team of Jeff and Devin Hendricks. Devin, 22, is clearly a talented software developer who has already worked on a variety of cutting edge technology projects, while Jeff, the father, has a background in management/business analysis on software projects for large financial entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and World Bank). They decided to combine their software development and business management experiences. Mosoma is the result.
Outlook:
The success or failure of any auction business, internet based or traditional, depends more than any other factor on the quality of the items up for auction. Yet, it may be a chicken or the egg problem. The application needs sellers to put quality items up for sale, but it needs buyers for those items to entice sellers in the first place. My guess is that the "Field of Dreams" rule applies: if you list it they will come. If quality products show up on the site, the Facebook community is going to find them and buy them. At this early stage there are only a handful of items up for auction, meaning Mosoma is going to have to figure out a way to attract more sellers. The $1 flat fee listing is tough to beat, but is probably too low to sustain the site without other revenue streams (probably extra fees to "highlight" an item are forthcoming). A potentially huge market exists within the Facebook site itself: auctions for Facebook applications. That is an unclear market for now, to say the least, but the possibility of a fluid market is a real possibility given the skyrocketing number of applications (almost 1,800 are now listed in the main directory).
At the very least give the team at Mosoma credit for attempting to compete with two of the biggest players on the internet in E-bay and Facebook's Classifieds. Third party developers have already come up with several applications that plug E-bay into Facebook, and with an easy API it is likely more will follow. Mosoma offers more features than Classifieds, and the Free Gifts application has proven that it's possible to prosper in the same space as one of Facebook's own applications. I hope Mosoma finds success. The technology and design they have been able to integrate into the Facebook platform is as impressive as anything on Facebook. While simple applications that generate Grey's Anatomy Quotes or Detect Lesbians rise in popularity, Mosoma proves that useful applications can be developed. Whether that turns out to be what the Facebook community wants remains to be seen.
Quick Looks is a new feature spotlighting applications or services that are too new for a full review, but have a strong underlying premise. The idea is to take a "quick look" at the simple basis of the application and the people behind it. It is less about what the application is now, and more about what it could become down the road. Mosoma is the first application in Quick Looks. It is a social networking auction application, but it is too new to truly evaluate how well it works. The Facebook version currently only has a few items up for auction. If and when the site has more users, Is it Contagious will return for a full review.
The Pitch:
Mosoma's auction platform allows Facebook users to auction to the entire Facebook community. You will be able to execute each step necessary in the auction entirely on the Facebook. Mosoma is cheaper than E-bay for items worth more than $10.
Social
networking+auctions+mobile
technology=Mosoma. Actually the name
stands for ""Mobile Social
Marketplace" (Mo=Mobile, So=Social,
Ma=Marketplace). The hook is pretty
simple "why trade with strangers on
E-bay when you can trade with people
you know on Facebook?" The setup is
actually closer to Facebook's own
Classifieds application than to
E-bay, and that is a good thing.
Adding an item is straight forward,
and afterwards it's possible to
include more pictures, blog entries,
easily answer questions, and there
is a rating system to (hopefully)
keep people honest. It looks like
once an auction is won the parties
can work out the payment method.
Mosoma started as a stand alone site
for campus specific auctions, and
the current payment model suggests
that is probably still the target
market. Buy a tv from someone in a
nearby dorm room, and walk down the
hall to pay him and get the tv (see
606Tech's look at the
old site).
They have covered most of the standard features one would expect with a legitimate online auction site: watch lists, bid history, user ratings, friend's items, ect. The original site included Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) capabilities to monitor and communicate through cell phones. It is unclear whether they have been able to integrate those options into the platform. Presumably there will also be ways to highlight items up for auction, though there is not much need to now with very few items for sale (it appears to be a buyer's market for old biology and chemistry books).
Creators:
The guys behind Mosoma are the father-son team of Jeff and Devin Hendricks. Devin, 22, is clearly a talented software developer who has already worked on a variety of cutting edge technology projects, while Jeff, the father, has a background in management/business analysis on software projects for large financial entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and World Bank). They decided to combine their software development and business management experiences. Mosoma is the result.
Outlook:
The success or failure of any auction business, internet based or traditional, depends more than any other factor on the quality of the items up for auction. Yet, it may be a chicken or the egg problem. The application needs sellers to put quality items up for sale, but it needs buyers for those items to entice sellers in the first place. My guess is that the "Field of Dreams" rule applies: if you list it they will come. If quality products show up on the site, the Facebook community is going to find them and buy them. At this early stage there are only a handful of items up for auction, meaning Mosoma is going to have to figure out a way to attract more sellers. The $1 flat fee listing is tough to beat, but is probably too low to sustain the site without other revenue streams (probably extra fees to "highlight" an item are forthcoming). A potentially huge market exists within the Facebook site itself: auctions for Facebook applications. That is an unclear market for now, to say the least, but the possibility of a fluid market is a real possibility given the skyrocketing number of applications (almost 1,800 are now listed in the main directory).
At the very least give the team at Mosoma credit for attempting to compete with two of the biggest players on the internet in E-bay and Facebook's Classifieds. Third party developers have already come up with several applications that plug E-bay into Facebook, and with an easy API it is likely more will follow. Mosoma offers more features than Classifieds, and the Free Gifts application has proven that it's possible to prosper in the same space as one of Facebook's own applications. I hope Mosoma finds success. The technology and design they have been able to integrate into the Facebook platform is as impressive as anything on Facebook. While simple applications that generate Grey's Anatomy Quotes or Detect Lesbians rise in popularity, Mosoma proves that useful applications can be developed. Whether that turns out to be what the Facebook community wants remains to be seen.