Toronto Based eBounties Utilizes Power Of Crowd To Find Rare Items and Services

By: Talha Bhatti  |   May 29th, 2013   |   Business, News, O Canada

Canadian startup, eBounties, wants to put the buyer in the drivers seat by giving them the ability to sit back and relax while sellers come to them. Instead of having to search numerous websites for items that are for sale, the site lets the public search for what a buyer wants and offers an incentive for their time. For the buyers the Ebounties service has no cost but they do have to make a pre-approved payment with PayPal to the site. This makes sure that their is cash available for the purchase and a deal does not fall through because the buyer does not have money. The best part about the Ebounties system is that a buyer only has to shell out money when they get results. If no deal takes place, their money stays in their pocket.

 
The startup has made Toronto its home base and launched their services just last week all across Canada, UK, US and Australia. The site makes searching for hard to find items a lot easier because it takes the responsibility of the search off the buyer and places it into the hands of the crowd. When hundreds or thousands of people utilize their knowledge of the local real world market or online market they can get tasks done a lot quicker and earn a quick buck. The system can be used to unearth a rare collectable item or even an employee with very special skill sets.

 

The bounty on offer goes to two types of people. The first kind is a sellers who has the required “knowledge, service, item or connection that a buyer is seeking.” This is usually where an expert in his or her field has the required answers or a seller has the exact product that a buyer needs and is direct connection. The second way a bounty can be made is the user connects the buyer with a third party that has the requested product of service.
Luke Chao, the founder and CEO of eBounties, say that,“If the average person knows just 300 people. 100 people know 30,000. You absolutely need crowdsourcing to find a person (or an item, or information) that is rare.”
TechVibes recently profiled the company and explained that, “Headhunters, matchmakers, antique dealers and other traffickers of privileged information and connections garner a lot of money, yet they don’t have any special requirement. Ebounties is hoping to start a revolution, one that allows anybody with informative knowledge or highly touted items to make money.”
They went on to add that, “Google searches don’t always yield the information we want, so the Canadian startup encourages users to be creative. One user offered a $15 bounty to anyone who can find a local nut-free Chinese restaurant, while a Toronto-based hypnosis centre offered $75 to anyone who can bring in new clients.”

Source: TechVibes