Bido added a number of new features today.
Credit domain name auction site Bido with constantly tweaking (or overhauling) its site in response to feedback.
Today the company announced a number of new changes:
1. Name your starting price. No more $28 minimum/maximum. A lower minimum will likely result in more votes.
2. Vote for profits. If an auction you vote for goes to auction and sells, you get a cut of Bido’s commission. The goal is to incentivize you to participate in voting. You only have a certain number of votes you can use.
3. BuyItNow pricing. It costs one Bido credit to set a buy it now price.
4. Negotiations. Negotiate on prices instead of going to an auction.
I like these ideas, especially naming your starting price. I also like voter profit sharing. My only worry — that I’ve voiced before — is that Bido is getting to complicated. Its initial success was due to its simplicity.
Hi Andrew, and thanks for the writeup.
As always, we will monitor, learn, and adapt. About “naming your own price”, it is up to 100K (USD), with no fees. One Bido Credit requires to list above 100K.
Best,
Sahar
As far as the newsletters that are sent out to explain the updates. They should take your format of writing about updates and learn from it. Their newsletters are incredibly long. Too long.
It seems that the underlying driver for Bido is a type of social networking platform. If the end result is “liquidity” within a small domainer circle, then the destination may not have been worth the trip.
I sincerely hope Bido becomes much more than that. Or one could just post domains for sale in the domain forums and achieve similar results. The Bido guarantee program (not yet active?) is the bigger play and being able to springboard out from that to work with true end-user industries must, in my opinion, be the next evolution in domain marketing and sales. Less than that becomes just another flavor of what already exists.
The most interesting aspect is how creative Bido are in coming up with new and novel approaches. The other online domain sites are very static, stale. Bido keeps evolving and trying new angles. This is how innovation and break-throughs occur. Pushing the limits, and experimentation, are much better. More time will tell.
Thanks for the coverage, we appreciate it very much.
@BF – thank you for the feedback about the length of the newsletters. There were many updates this time around and a lot of information to get across. Your point is noted though, we’ll keep it in mind.
@M. Menius – thank you for the review. The Bido Guarantee program we aim to have out in the upcoming weeks, this big release we have been working on that just came out yesterday tied into it, and so we needed time, and still need some more. We have many of the top buyers in the industry on board and we are eager to release it very soon.
Your comments and kind words about how we do things differently mean a lot to us, thanks.
The new changes do not matter – the domains are still not appealing in either quality or price.
@Hello – if you think about it some more, the change actually facilitates the ability for sellers of higher quality names to submit those names, with their price. So, one of the core issues that this release addressed was that very ability for higher quality names to go up for voting. Previously all names up for voting needed to be willing to go to auction for $28 no reserve. Now the seller can select the starting price up to 100K, for free.
Hi Jared – the higher reserve function will allow more people to list more names at a higher price that doesn’t match the real value on the name, thus turning it into more of a classifieds system as opposed to a true auction platform. Better and fewer names posted at no reserve are what I’d like to see. Too much noise – I already get that at every other auction platform, and unfortunately I can’t use the system.
I advise check the Upcoming tab and download the file of items that are upcoming for auction. They were pre-screened by the voters for probability of the item to sell based on the item itself in relation to it’s BidoPrice. For what you are interested in, I advise not to focus on the BidoPrice tab where voting happens, and the large list of inventory resides. I advise only focus on the Upcoming Auctions data, as that’s been thinned down already to save you time wading through an excessively large list of “noise”.
We have two files of upcoming inventory:
Without “adult” items:
http://www.bido.com/UpcomingAuctionsCSV
and with “adult” items
http://www.bido.com/UpcomingAuctionsCSV?adult=1
I think if you integrate with those files you may find that the voters in Bido community did the work to locate items of value and interest to the bidders.
The data is also accessible over our website in the “Upcoming” tab.
Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to explain these things, I hope they illuminate things that much more.
Jarred, can you also offer domains for less than $28? Or does this change only make it possible to increase the price?
Andrew,
It is 28$ and higher, free to list up to US$ 100K, and one Bido Credit above 100K.
Best,
Sahar
Jared – thanks for responding directly. I actually believe that letting everyone submit their own pricing is the real problem with every auction platform. There are no real true auctions for secondary names (except for the drops), mostly classifeds in the guise of auctions (not picking on Bido- this applies to them all, including live auctions). Domain auctions need less seller input, and more from knowledgeable professionals to set up a real competitive bidding environment.
Again, thank you for commenting directly. I’m really not trying to put down Bido, but I’m not very satisfied with the various auction platforms out there, and I expect that many others feel the same way I do.
Hello,
Domains in BidoPrice tab aren’t in auction, they are in consideration for an auction. Our auction inventory is in-demand inventory and for those who wish to not waste their time, we suggest to focus on the Upcoming tab and the EndingSoon tab. We know of many of our buyers do just that.
Best,
Sahar
Wanted to comment about Bido becoming to complicated!
At first glance I thought the Bido changes might be a little complicated. After reviewing and using the system I now find it to be quite interesting and easy to use.
The changes are encouraging higher priced listings to appear. Someone needs to tell the buyers!
Mike Dew – HeadlineDomains.com