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
A big (maybe biggest) reason why buyer initiated bounty markets don't work is that the buyer is shouldering the initial cost and risk. They have to take the effort to *maybe* get a result, when they're the one trying to spend money and want to be as lazy as possible.
In contrast, if they go to a seller-driven market ("I will sell this for $50") then they know those opportunities are ready for their taking.
The markets where this works are the ones where the demand-supply balance is so wonky and/or so liquid that a buyer is sure to get responses from sellers. Examples would be oDesk/elance/99 Designs, where people post "I want to pay $100 for xyz."
You could count the stock markets too if you include bid-ask systems.
