SetYourRate.com is Priceline for Local Services
UK-based SetYourRate.com, which officially launched out of private beta on Tuesday, is attempting to bring Priceline-style economics to the local services industry. The site is cultivating a services marketplace that matches buyers to services providers with a catch: buyers are allowed to name their own price, while service providers compete with one another to meet that price. To me that sounds similar to the service Priceline offers for airline tickets, hotels, and car rentals.
Since beginning their beta test in November, the site has attracted over 1,000 service sellers in categories ranging from accounting to web site design to pole dancing instruction. Service sellers get a profile on the site where they can advertise their services and rates, and on which buyers can rate and review those service providers.
Buyers can browse the site's yellow pages-like listings of service providers, or they can enter a description of the service they're looking for and the price they're willing to pay. Service sellers can then browse those want ads and bid on jobs.
"The inspiration behind SetYourRate.com was that everyone has a marketable skill or service they can offer," said SetYourRate.com co-founder Luke Aviet in a press release. "The Internet has proved a great medium for buying and selling products. We are simply using the same principles to help buyers and sellers of services efficiently connect as well."
I'm not sure that professionals will buy into the name your own price idea, and from some scanning the web site it seems that most of the people offering services are amateurs or moonlighters. Indeed, according to the press release, "the most common reason people offer services through SetYourRate.com is to provide a second income." Certainly you can find reliable help that way, but for many people, I suspect the phonebook or broader local search sites that include user reviews will offer greater utility.
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Great idea! I sincerely hope this takes off and becomes as popular as Craigslist.
Ease up on the graphics though. I want textual content more than anything else.
BTW, I received some horrible .NET error while attempting a search for just my zip code (no service).
Posted by: PC | January 24, 2008 12:54 PM
This idea has been tried before. Bizbuyer.com during the bubble. Raised a ton of dough, impressive board, Harvard MBAs everywhere. For anything but the most basic service you need to talk to (interview) the other person before you hire them to make sure they are legit. If you have their contact info you don't need to pay a referral fee.
Maybe itll work on a small scale. Bizbuyer was burning cash like crazy.
Posted by: Steve | January 24, 2008 1:23 PM
Is there any intergrated payment gateway to purchase the offered service?
Posted by: PohEe | January 24, 2008 4:57 PM
Setyourrate.com has been launched at an integral economic time. Indeed it could be complete fluke, however I have a sneaking suspicion that this is an optimastion of the forthcoming downturn! The site still needs some good technological nurturing, however the layout is still professional enough to attract 'service offers' from reputable clients, yet still simple enough for the layman to handle! What more could you want! The simple ideas are indeed, as we all know, the most successful.
Posted by: stephen | January 25, 2008 2:28 PM