Building a Peer to Peer Marketplace: Single User Utility

Building a Peer to Peer Marketplace: Single User Utility(credport.org)

7 points by cmcewen 13 years ago | 2 comments

numlocked 13 years ago |

I don't understand the eBay example at all:

"eBay's single user utility was a combination of a much larger audience to sell..."

That doesn't seem like single user utility at all. Otherwise, good article.

cmcewen 13 years ago | |

If you think of it in terms of the 1 or 2 pawn shops you might have access to, eBay's initial audience of 100 or 1000 as well as the usenet groups Omidyar would post to provides significant "single user" utility that most marketplaces can't provide at that same audience size. So while you're correct that it's not truly "single" user, eBay did provide significant value to the very very early sellers.