Working Webware: Wigix Video

Working Webware: Wigix Video Transcript

>> On this Working Webware, a new competitor for eBay?

>> If the item price is under $25 you get to use our service for free; that digital camera you have.

>> Wigix.com is far superior in trading this type of production.

>> Wigix, put to the test on working Webware.

>> Welcome to Webware. I'm Dan Farber. I'm here with Rafe Needleman of Webware, and our special guest today James Chong from Wigix. James, thanks for joining us.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> Now tell us a little bit about Wigix. As far as I know you're trying to take on eBay, which is a pretty substantial task.

>> Thank you. Yeah. Wigix.com is the next generation of consumer marketplace. We employ a well-proven method called the bid as method, that's employed by major markets in the world. We like our consumer to think of the Wigix account as their [Inaudible] account for their everyday stuff.

>> EBay has about 80 million people who do that every day. They don't use the bid as model, they use the more traditional auction model. So how do you expect to compete?

>> I think it is well documented that the auction market for everyday commodity items -- it's not a good set. It was designed to sell, really, collectibles.

>> One of a kind.

>> One of a kind. So the market kind of took it over.

>> Because there was no alternative inside.

>> So the market used the auction model to try to sell everyday commodity items. The good example would be the cell phone that you have, the digital camera that you have. That's your everyday commodity items. Now the bid as model is far superior in trading this type of product.

>> Is this a more volatile system?

>> It may be. I think since we, you know, we just launched a private -- public beta for five days now, that probably -- that judgment is probably still out there.

>> How do you expect to drive people into your service? Is it through basically pricing it much cheaper than eBay in terms of how you sell an item.

>> Well, I wouldn't necessarily call it pricing it much cheaper than eBay. What we're doing is offering good value for our customers.

>> What are your prices, specifically.

>> If the item price is under $25 you get to use our service for free. Now between $25 to $100 we charge $1.50 to the buyer and $1.50 to the seller. That's it. And above a hundred dollars, then we have a variable charge, very much like the legacy market.

>> I have a question just about the buying process. What -- what if you're buying something and it turns out you get it and it's not what you thought it was, or the condition wasn't was -- as stated. How do you deal with that, how do you deal with reputation management?

>> When we do matching, we not only match the price we also match the condition. Once a condition is met, then we put the buyer and seller order together, and obviously there's -- there's going to be a dispute process if --

>> So you do have a dispute process in place.

>> Yes, we would have a dispute process in place.

>> James, thanks very much.

>> Thank you.

>> When we come back, we'll talk about our thoughts on Wigix and the odds for success in the marketplace. ^M00:03:24 [ Music ] ^M00:03:26

>> And we're back now, and we've been talking about Wigix, and I thought James gave a fairly good eexplanation of this site. I'm still curious on how it's really going to compete against eBay, which is so huge and has so much market share.

>> Well, I think it's pretty straight forward. If buyers find out about this service, and they go to it, and they have a better experience -- and by that I mean they get better prices -- boom, buyers will use it. If sellers go to the service and find they can list their products easily and that it's an easier process and more efficient -- meaning that they get better prices for the goods they're selling. They're going to use it.

>> I think you're right. It's a very sensitive time for this company right now because they're just out of the gate. And one thing that's good for them is that they have a very clear target. You know, that compares to eBay. It's not just to conquer eBay, it's to be different than eBay.

>> They're trying to carve out a piece of eBay. I mean --

>> Actually, it's not just eBay. It's a combination of Amazon, where it's like a retail store, and Wikipedia, because they're using their -- their -- their members who come to the site to actually populate it with items and populate it with information about the items, as well as a kind of NASDAQ, where you have the bid as trading.

>> Well, what they're doing is they're taking what eBay has been hatched to do, which is sell -- not commodity products, but to sell boxed retail goods, and they're creating a market that is actually designed to sell boxed retail goods as opposed to eBay, which never was. And they're carving that out of eBay. I think as a market for used goods or non-boxed goods, it's not that good. I think it's a little confusing. But if people go there and they see that it's a better store then --

>> They basically have to get people -- small businesses -- and retailers who want to put their items into this system, and then have a secondary market with the, you know, the more individuals who have their camera lenses and iPod and whatever else.

>> The question I have is they don't seem to be very far along with reputation management. One of the really good things about eBay because it has so much history, 80 million users, you know a lot about the sellers.

>> And eBay, too, very intelligently has guarded that reputation system with its life. I mean, you can't export the eBay reputation easily -- or legally. And that's not going to translate to this service. Now they say, Wigix says that they'll do more looking into the sellers to give people a comfort level. But you're right. For individual sellers there is no reputation system that's a plug-in. For more traditional sellers they will be able to point to Better Business Bureau ratings and stuff like that to make people comfortable that they're buying from a certain shop. All right, so on a Working Webware scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highest, how do you rate this in terms of odds for success?

>> Well, if eBay takes an interest in it and tries to take them out by acquiring them, I think this will be a great drop-in for eBay. To be honest, it's a different model. EBay has adopted other models in the past. They adopted PayPal, they adopted half.com. I think that this is a good target for eBay.

>> How about Amazon?

>> Or Amazon, it could work there as well. Going it alone, I don't know. Odds for success, it's on execution. A lot of it will have to be based on customer service, on dispute resolution.

>> Give me the number.

>> 8. I really like this business.

>> Okay, good. I'll give it a 7.5. All right. So --

>> Why -- sorry.

>> Why half?

>> Why half less?

>> Oh, because it's got a my bid as.

>> So the spread on this is a half a point.

>> Right. For working Webware, I'm Dan Farber.

>> I'm Rafe Needleman.

>> Thanks for watching. ^M00:06:58 [ Music ]