ThemBid.com

Will This be the End of Online Advertising?

It seems that most business models are heavily based on generating revenue through online advertising. This includes giant companies such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This also has been the primary motivation for the purchase of online communities such as MySpace, YouTube, and probably Facebook in the near future.

Currently, businesses need to advertise in order to attract clients. Consumers then see the ads, and contact the business. I see big disadvantages for both the businesses and consumers in this model. When a consumer contacts a business based on ad, how does that person know the quality of the business? Most clients do it at random, some do more research on that company, some base their decision on how well or big the ad is, etc. For businesses, a lot of resources need to be allocated towards marketing instead of investing those resources on their product and services. When I was still in school during the dotcom bubble, a friend of mine went to work for a tech company that had what I still think was a great idea. After two years he returned and on his own words “the company failed because the marketing team sucked”.

I have been faced with the same hurdles both as a consumer and as a business owner. For example, if I want to look for a plumber either I search online or go to the yellow pages. I can easily find ten maybe more but I have to spend the time on calling them all and I am still taking the risk of not knowing the quality of the work beforehand. In the same manner, as a business if I want to start a new venture, I have to hire a marketing team and/or advertise on Google, Yahoo, MSN, communities, etc. To solve this, as a consumer I want to find a business quickly that has a proven track record that they can provide the product and/or service to satisfy my needs. In addition, as a business I want to quickly find potential customers without having to spend millions on advertising and have the quality of the work speak for itself.

After analyzing those problems and identifying the possible solutions, ThemBid.com was created. Consumers post their request, choose a category and a location at regional, state, national, or international levels. Businesses subscribed on a category and location that match the request’s criteria get notified by email and soon SMS. Businesses then bid on that request and a consumer can pick a business based on its rating and/or price. Ratings are strictly based on feedback provided by consumers from previous requests. For users wanting to sell or post messages a classifieds section was added. We believe ThemBid.com can benefit both the consumers and businesses to make their experience much easier.