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MenuIs Clarity a Marketplace or a Platform or Both, and why?
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Hello I am Veerendra Kooshna from Mauritius and has been writing articles on Facebook for some years now. My writing passion is appreciated by those who read my posts.
Now, what is Clarity really about? As its name points out, it aims to clarify any doubts you may have on a subject. It's a platform where experts in various subject areas meet those with questions to answer them. With its wide variety of experts, you can expect someone to answer you and clear your doubts. It's more about giving than taking; this is what makes it beautiful. This is also a means for experts to get to know people with questions and select the most serious ones for further discussion.
This is where it becomes a marketplace. Experts would be more inclined to go deeper into the subject matter only when they believe you are serious. In today's world, time is a really precious commodity and we need to respect each other's time tables. Experts shall find time to help those serious seekers and charge for that. This is quite normal; investing time and knowledge deserves to be remunerated. In this win-win formula, the seeker is given due attention and advice for the betterment of his or her venture.
I really hope this has helped you. By the way, am an adviser in presenting more investor-friendly business plans and an exam coach by experience. You may contact me for more information. Thank you.
It's a 2-sided marketplace. Experts (supply) and answer-seekers (demand).
Platforms are a type of technology which other people can build services or products upon. (Eg: Salesforce)
All marketplaces are platforms. Hence, Clarity is a marketplace and a platform.
A platform can be defined as a place of interaction where users with freedom of decision making power interact with each other, and the platform owner defines the rules of conduct and governance.
On the flip side, not all platforms need to have marketplaces operating on it. As an example, Microsoft developed its Windows operating system for 2 decades as a platform without a marketplace. It was a platform because app developers created many software applications for Windows OS users to install and use. It wasn't a marketplace because Microsoft didn't operate any kind of a medium for app developers and users to meet and transact with each other.
Compared to Windows OS, Apple's iOS is a platform with a marketplace built on top: app developers and OS users meet on App Store to interact and transact.
Related Questions
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What is the best pricing (business model) to apply to a marketplace?
I like to separate your question into 2 sub-questions: #1 How do we determine which side to charge? #2 How much is the right amount to charge? On #1, my answer is that you can charge the side(s) for whom you add the most value. In your examples, Uber really solves a big problem for drivers, it's that they sit idle for a good part of the day, so are willing to pay a lot for new leads. (their alternative is no work) Consumers are charged more for the convenience of a private car but they are probably not so much willing to pay more for a taxi, even if they can hail one from their phones. For AirBnB, it's a mix, it's a way for landlords to monetize idle capacity which they are willing to pay for, but it's also a way for a renter to pay less than they would normally pay for a hotel. On #2 (how much), I like to triangulate a number of factors: - What's the maximum amount I can charge one side, while still being a good deal for them. - How much do I need to charge so that I can become profitable? (the economics are quite different if you charge 3% vs. 12%) - What are comparable services charging for substitutes/competitive offerings? I will just add that there is no formulaic way to determine pricing strategies (curated vs. open), and it's a lot more about what's the comparable and what the value delivered is. That's how I approached the question while deciding the business model at ProBueno.com (my startup)MR
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How to solve a chicken and egg problems for a marketplace like Uber? What is the best way to acquire demand side?
The best way to solve chicken and egg problems for marketplaces is to prove market need on each side independently first with a low-cost MVP-type test. Once you've proven the market on both sides with metrics it is much easier to leg in supply and demand with a strategic or enough funding to match a market on a local or niche level to ensure liquidity. For a deeper analysis, here is a post on medium that I wrote... http://bit.ly/1k2vYbY Also, feel free to schedule a call with me if you'd like to dig deeper.DK
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What's the average CAC value or range for a Marketplace client?
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Your customer acquisition cost is not something you should benchmark against other businesses. Without knowing more, like your short and long-term goals, it's impossible to answer. Two companies with similar business models may have different answers to this question. A venture-backed startup trying to keep up with aggressive revenue goals may be able to stomach an astronomical CAC. A bootstrapped startup that is not seeking venture money may aim for slower growth and much lower CAC. I suggest setting up a call with a marketing or finance expert to determine what CAC is appropriate for your company and how to get there.TL
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How important is it for a marketplace startup to drive enough demand (customers) for your supply (sellers) to make a full time living off of it?
It's very important. (first, read this article by Josh Breinlinger - http://acrowdedspace.com/post/47647912203/a-critical-but-ignored-metric-for-marketplaces) The way you achieve success in a marketplace is by driving liquidity for both your supply & demand. Demand-side Liquidity = When users come to your marketplace, they can achieve their goals. Supply-side Liquidity = When supply comes to your marketplace they can achieve their goals... which are almost always to make money. If you're making a large amount of your supply-side users a full-time income, then you're helping them achieve liquidity. Now it's not so black and white and it doesn't always have to be a "full-time income." It depends what their goals are. E.g., 1) At Airbnb, renters aren't looking to quit their day jobs and become landlords full-time... they're just look to earn a substantial amount of income to offset their rent, mortgage, etc. So in this case, I would probably goal on # of renters that earn >$500 / month... and (in the first 1-5 years) try to grow this number by 10-20% MoM... and maybe by just 5% once you're in the mid-high tens of millions in yearly revenue. 2) At Kickstarter, the goal of the supply-side is to get their project successfully funded. They don't care if the project creator is "full-time"... they just want to make sure they meet their funding goal. This is why they talk about their 44% project success rate all the time - http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats 3) At Udemy, our instructors want a substantial amount of their income to be driven from their Udemy course earnings... so we look at how many instructors are earning >$2k / month.DT
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When recording income for a marketplace startup, is it typical to use the gross transaction or just the fees collected per payment?
You usually only recognize the commissions as revenues and use the term "Gross Merchandise Value" (GMV) to describe the size of the marketplace (value of all transactions going through the site)BW
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