Re:How to Kill a Startup Idea with Google Keyword Planner an...
by TrackerFF on Thursday January 23, 2020 @01:27AM
(#22125329)
Yes, you even see this on marketplaces like Ebay, etc. Once you've established a relationship with some buyer / seller, it doesn't take long before said marketplace gets cut out from the equation.
I sell a lot of expensive stuff on the web, and I'd say 80% of my buyers are repeat buyers that started contacting me through mail after a couple of deals.
Re:How to Kill a Startup Idea with Google Keyword Planner an...
by asfarley on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:49PM
(#22123738)
Upwork (formerly elance) is a good example of a platform which could leverage the relationship by providing better intermediary services (like dispute resolution). In practice, they don’t, and there is no real reason not to defect.
Re:How to Kill a Startup Idea with Google Keyword Planner an...
by st1ck on Thursday January 23, 2020 @04:08AM
(#22126028)
From guest point of view, Airbnb defection defense is pretty annoying, as it doesn't let you post URLs, addresses, or phone numbers prior to booking. Also pretty easy to circumvent.
Airbnb did this beautifully: they set up insurance for all their hosts, and so were able to frame "stay on our platform" as a safety directive.
You can also go the opposite way, but that usually leads to user-hostile antipatterns. E.g., Freelancer tries to detect all the ways folks might send each other phone numbers on their messaging service. This is both annoying and easy to circumvent.
If your rate of defection is high enough, no amount of tactical tricks will save you. Incentive and ingenuity together are too much.
When you're small and still have structural degrees of freedom, target the incentive by adding value to your offering if you can. If the problem only appears when you're big, you may have the resources to play whack-a-mole.
If you're small, have high defection rates, and also can't economically add value to your offering - it's time to move into another line of business.