This is an idea that I thought about back in high school when me and my friends would trade video games back and forth. We all decided to start doing this because almost every single video game we ever bought would eventually become boring and would turn into a complete waste of money (and video games are expensive to buy a lot of). So what happened is that we eventually got to a point where we all had bought enough video games that we could constantly trade them back and forth between each other and end up not wasting any money video games. My idea is to take this trading idea to a larger scale. I would create a website that connects everyone in local towns and communities that want to trade video games with each other. I would setup a subscription to this site so I had a source of income to sort out things like the mailing and shipping costs and the maintenance of this website.
This week in class we discussed the power that social media has and I saw the opportunities that it can open up for entrepreneurs like myself. After about a week now of using twitter for the first time I see that it can really get you connected to a lot of people that can help push your ideas and get them on the map over the internet. For my idea i could see my self using twitter to advertise it to my followers, have my followers that like the idea advertise it to their followers, and so on.... Also i saw the usefulness of websites like facebook and now google+ for businesses. You can create pages for your business (not yet on google+ but soon) and send all of your followers to it to get information about your business. Also these social media websites can be used when receiving job applicants to basically run background checks on them. Facebook now a days enables you to see what kind of people your job applicants really are and can help employers make better decisions with the people they hire.
That's all for this week. I hope to and am looking forward to learn more next week so I can further develop my ideas for a potentially great website.
Cool idea for the niche. Some companies out there are starting to realize that individuals want to do commerce with each other and sometimes it is monetary, but sometimes it is for exchange of goods that different people have. A company that just popped up over the past couple months is Zaarly. You should check them out, you might be able to get some ideas from them.
ReplyDeleteI think this idea has a lot of potential. One issue that may arise is that there may be a demand for one specific game at one point or another because of a new release or popularity. Maybe in addition to your website you can set something up similar to a Redbox in different neighborhoods, this way you can spend less money in shipping.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very cool and creative idea. The only risk is that someone will not return a game to other people. A good idea is to have a time limit and then consequential fines to people who do not return games. As long as the people agree to your terms of use, and you can charge their credit card, you will be fine. So i believe the biggest issue you will have to deal with is safety on the site. But majority of my friends would love this site. I think you can also market this at local video game stores, because that would be your perfect market.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful idea! I have a few questions that would possibly help you moving forward after this project. Have you thought about what business model this company would follow? Would this be a non-profit organization or for profit? Also, there is a large potential for physical theft, is there anyway you can secure against physical theft?
ReplyDelete