Question
Zaarly's original buyer-centric, bountry-based product didn't work (and pivoted to a more traditional sellers model)
http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/19/while-virtual-gigs-thrive-physical-gigs-die/
I remembered the good old Google Answers product (based on bounty) didn't work either?
Even buyer-centric (request centric) services like Uber, Lyft, Sidercar ... etc ... use non-bounty based models.
Have there been any buyer-centric, bounty-bases services that worked?
e.g. "I'd pay $50 for ___ " ... "I'd pay $10 for answer to this question " ... etc
thanks!
Answer
Buyer Centric on it's own may work if the value proposition is strong e.g. Odesk, elance , every Job board under the sun (in some ways), etc.
Bounty based though is intimidating because of the process of defining rates is arbitrary, in a non f2f interaction it's much easier to have a pre-defined set of rules to engage in.
But there is a classic problem of chicken and the egg problem in a buyer-centric marketplace and if one does not think it through, you may be in for a very long haul.
