boocoo

Castration would be painful, especially when it is self inflicted.

I was browsing through my Google Reader, exploring “stolen content”, and I noticed something that sounded interesting; the word was “BooCoo”. I clicked on the story bar and was soon greeted by a sadly sympathetic review of the newest online print manifestation, an attempt to fight Craigslist and eBay. It is common knowledge that one of the major sources of income for many papers, the classifieds, has been in decline for the past decade. Until recently it would seem like their only attempts at adapting was either legislation or complaining.

However, this would seem to have changed recently as a coalition of 300 newspapers have bandied together to bring their audiences with them to the digital era. BooCoo, essentially an online version of the classifieds, is being launched in the hopes of making some money on open commerce. This story is just getting started.

When someone visits Craigslist, they are coming to the first iteration of connected, open and inventive commerce. Even eBay, to an extent, could even be considered open commerce despite their restrictions on selling souls, virginity and guns. When someone visits BooCoo, there is a sense of – garage sale listing; the backbone of modern print classifieds.

Here is a screenshot of their wildly innovative interface.

While writing this article I was involved in a conversation on Twitter with someone from BooCoo HQ who asked for specific recommendations for the site. Well here are several:

You have to understand that your pricing structure cannot rely on the assumed value of an “auction item”. This will retard the value of items listed by your users and thus people’s willingness to participate. You don’t seem to understand what open online commerce means. Here is a screen shot of their fees:
For having the support of a coalition of 300 newspapers with an estimated readership of 22 million, your website looks childish. While Craigslist is not any better aesthetically, you have to compete for attention.
You bought a website URL where you do not own the .org property. This is a fundamental mistake as your now competing for Google Page results with someone promoting music lessons.
When you registered your domain you left the gate wide open for hackers, spammers, pirates and creeps. I feel really concerned for George Willard. Here is another screenshot of the vital information surrounding who owns the domain:
Where are your community listings? To be trying to fight the horrible realities of Craigslist, you are going to have to try to connect to the real world a little harder.