Talk:Trade Me

Section about Clashes with Software Developers

I did not feel like this section was badmouthing TradeMe, as mentioned by 222.153.181.219.

It is reasonably well known that TradeMe's public stance is "no automated software". (However, this rule strangely doesn't seem to apply to sellers software -- see 'Auctionitis' and 'TradeTool'). TradeMe have indeed requested the immediate shutdown of several services released (e.g., 'TradeMe Sniper', 'HotBid', 'AuctionBar' and 'TraderContact') and have threatened legal action if this did not happen. I have personally seen two such letters, and have been at the receiving end of two phone-calls from TradeMe regarding such software.

I feel that, as the number of services being released is increasing quite rapidly, this issue is very pertinent and should be mentioned.

I've tried my best to add a little balance to this, although I think it would be good to add something about AuctionItis. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.97.188.148 (talk) 00:55, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, there is a lot of software that is actively used on TradeMe, including Auctionitis, TradeTool and OMINS. TradeMe doesn't seem to have a problem with these tools -- at least they haven't made any efforts to stop their use.

It's buying tools that seem to be the problem (such as AuctionBar and Snipe on TradeMe).

Unfortunately it's hard to expand on this issue as TradeMe don't make their stance on software publicly available.

All Trade Me users are bound by the site's terms and conditions (available in the 'help' section) which forbid using any automated tools to access the site. I'd say that was pretty clear 121.73.163.49 (talk) 12:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Messageboards

Trademe runs a messageboard which is amongst the busiest in New Zealand. However over time it has become abit of a haven for racists. Would a section about that be prudent here?

Perhaps a small section, though making a claim that it's a haven for racists is probably not going to be NPOV/verifiable. Richard001 04:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Edit: Moved to 'community and related sites' Richard001 06:03, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Images

We need an updated screenshot of the site to show the newer links to smaps and stuff.co.nz. The main concern with the current one is that it's in a very lossy jpg format, a png would be much better. Richard001 07:52, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I've uploaded one tonight, that's that taken care of. Richard001 08:27, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Besides the screenshot, further images that would improve the article are

• A good picture of Sam Morgan (I uploaded a small fair use one, but a bigger free one would be ideal)
• A picture of TradeMe headquarters (perhaps a Wellingtonian could take one and upload to Commons?)
• A typical auction on TradeMe to demonstrate the process

Removed section: Successive enhancements to the website

Most of this is fairly trivial and dated by now. The most notable changes/improvements should be placed in the history section.

• 1 November 2005 - New icon for brand new listings
• 11 November 2005 - "Buy now" price shown on category pages (obviating the need to go into the auction to see the "buy now")
• 11 November 2005 - Local tag displayed in auctions (an icon displays in auctions indicating whether the item up for auction currently shares a province of New Zealand with the enquirer)
• 21 November 2005 - Improved photo-page to make it easier to browse photos. When viewing an enlarged photo, users can see thumbnails for all images without having to return to the listing itself.
• 28 November 2005 - Email to watchers when "Buy Now" added (watchers receive an e-mail if the seller of an item adds a "buy now" price to the listing)
• 28 November 2005 - Date and time on answers and comments (questions and answers on auctions now get time-stamped with the times of asking and of answering)
• June 2006 - Automated email introduced, whereby a seller may have an automated email sent to the winner of a completed auction; such emails can contain bank account details so that the buyer can instantly deposit the funds
• August 2006 - Text bidding introduced: the system can send a bidder an SMS text message during the auction informing of the receipt of a higher bid, thus allowing the bidder ton text a still higher bid
• September 2006 - Buyers can send a template email containing an address for sending the auctioned goods to
• 20 November 2006 - New TradeMe front-end launched, with design input from the TradeMe community

TradeMe alternatives

I notice that one or two people (maybe it's just one person, I don't know) have been trying to add material on Tradefree to the article. This will of course be reverted as spam unless citations are provided. It is not that we are trying to keep information on competitors or alternatives out of the article, of course. A mention of Zillion is already provided, in fact. But for such material to be included some indication of the notability of the site is needed. If there was an article in major newspaper or something similar discussing an alternative website, it could certainly be added - and would improve the article. However despite searching for any such material on the web, I haven't been able to locate anything appropriate. If anyone can do so, please go ahead, but unsourced material will continue to be deleted on sight and stern warnings given. Richard001 07:05, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

How about allgoods.co.nz? There are many notable news articles about this alternative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chindokiwi (talk • contribs) 02:29, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Shopless was founded in 2016 and is an online marketplace for Kiwis. They have been mainly successful in the jobs category (as of today they are the 4th largest job site in NZ, after Seek, TradeMe and MyJobSpace).

References

Needs slightly more explanation of why TradeMe beat off eBay

At the moment the article has is Morgan's comment:

"...I think there are big cultural issues there that are just not well understood. For example the Americans think that everyone has a zip code [...] they were a little late in and then they launched in US dollars."

I'm slightly sceptical that it was simply "cultural issues" that did for eBay, considering that their UK site is extremely successful, and we don't have zip codes or buy in US$ either! Surely there was more to it than "cultural issues"? 86.136.251.18 11:03, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

My theory is that auction sites are a variation of a natural monopoly - once one player gets a decent turnover they have too much inertia for anyone else to get a look-in in that geomarket. You need a large audience before people will bother listing, and you don't get an audience if there aren't enough listings. EBay was simply too late at attempting anything New-Zealand specific, and international shipping costs are a big disincentive to New Zealanders using the US and Australian versions of ebay that were around when trademe started. However, I'm not a notable source so we'd need to find someone citable saying much the same thing.dramatic 20:26, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I thinks its due more to network effects rather than a natural monopoly. 210.54.238.182 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 22:05, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

The quote mentions they got in a bit late too. Richard001 22:31, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Note that the UK site I'm pretty sure was launched a long while ago and didn't I presume ask for zip codes and did accept listings in GBP. This compares to eBay which for very long (still?) didn't accept listing in NZD. While not directly addressed by the quote and therefore OR and not suitable for inclusion int he article, NZ's population demographics means that a fair number of items are sold locally with cash on pickup as the payment and 'delivery' method, something which eBay isn't really well set up for and even less so without a NZ site. In fact TradeMe partially fills the role Craigslist does in the US IMHO Nil Einne (talk) 07:44, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Web Traffic

When providing a reference for web traffic, the claim has changed from "Web traffic originating in New Zealand" to "60% of New Zealand's web traffic". The second claim is clearly nonsensical given that Trademe is the number 2 site in NZ and given the substantial percentage of NZ "web traffic" which originates overseas. I suspect this is a typical press release from a PR person short on details. My original reference was a job ad (hence now untraceable from trademe seeking a senior systems engineer - it was clearly written by someone with technical knowledge of their operation. On that basis, I shall re-insert the NZ-based part of the claim. dramatic (talk) 22:07, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Edits by 165.228.152.25 (possible vandalism)

Lixtor reference was there because their case is presented on **notable** newspaper National Business Review. It is not spam. Attempt to remove the Lixtor reference considered vandalism as the text was there with proper references. Nma wiki (talk) 01:22, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Edits by 121.90.205.3 (possible vandalism)

Someone (or maybe TradeMe itself) keep on trying to remove the section "Clashes with Rivals" without giving any academic reasons. Could someone keep an eye on this vandalism issue please? Nma wiki (talk) 20:03, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Lixtor pseudo relevance

Despite references Lixtor is absolutely irrelevant to the Trade Me story. It is one of many sites that copied T's & C's, one of many "rival" auction sites and has an Alexa rank of 7,295,500 as I write this. I can only suppose that someone from Lixtor is editing and re-editing this piece. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.98.80.14 (talk) 23:09, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

How is Lixtor irrelvant to TradeMe story (especially the clashes with rivals section)? I will tell you how it IS relevant-

• TradeMe is an auction site in NZ, Lixtor is an auction site in NZ
• TradeMe had actually bullied Lixtor using flase-flagged operation
• TradeMe had bullied Lixtor more than once
• All of this have been documented in the various news agencies (such as by National Business Review as explained by some other person on this page)

It is ridiculous to accuse me of being someone from Lixtor. After all, you're the one who "emotionally" against Lixtor.

If it is irrelevant, you should back it up with citing references and not just with your words. Otherwise I can only assume that you're paid by TradeMe to vandalize Wikipedia. Sorry. 210.55.97.34 (talk) 21:47, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Ahem. He/she made that comment back in November 2009 so I don't think an accusation was being made about you. Moriori (talk) 01:20, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Oops, sorry about that. I didn't know how to read dates I guess.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.55.97.34 (talk) 03:38, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I modified the claim in the article. Its clear from the ref NBR is not accusing Trademe of anything, just reporting the accusation. By accusation i mean the accusation that TradeMe was using bullying tactics, there doesn't seem to be any dispute that Lixtor was accused of copyright violations and asked to take down the allgedly infringing works since even TradeMe agreed they did that. BTW the NBR doesnt say it was a false flag operation. Any ref which says it was should probably bei ignored since it's asilly accusation suggesting whoever wrote it doesnt understand what a false flag operation is. Even if Trademe was acting maliciously it clearly wasnt a false lag operation. Nil Einne (talk) 14:09, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

BTW looking at the history and going by voluntarily disclosed information here on wikipedia as well as information in the links about the controversy, it does seem some COI editing was involved in the past. Nil Einne (talk) 14:34, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

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