Trade goods/service with smiles: Online barter system
By siliconindia   |    10 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Trade goods/service with smiles: Online barter system
Bangalore: Thanks to internet, trade practices have backtracked to the barter systems, but with a twist. You don't need to have goods or money to be a part of the system, rather few online smiles. Some residents in a villa conclave in Bangalore, have been getting goods from within their neighborhood just by earning and spending online smiles, reports Renuka Phadnis of Bangalore Mirror. The residents joined a social networking site called whol.ly, as part of the site's soft launch in Bangalore, which already flaunted 150 members from other cities. This also allows the neighbors to know each other. For instance Joao Rocha, a Bangalore resident has collected 29 smiles by offering Portuguese cooking classes to other residents in his community while Raina Sahu has earned 32 smiles from designing and landscaping neighbours' gardens. "We all have skills which we never even think we can exchange because we have our jobs and enough money. This is not about money. It is about some resource, skill or service I can provide and have an expectation of something in return from people in my community. Some metric is needed to show that a person does not have too high credits or debits. The best part is that you feel good within your community," says Rocha. Its not only for people to throng into the site for friends rather the main motive is to make the neighbors to interact with each other, a thing which is hardly possible in the busy cities. This becomes a platform for the neighbors to aid each other through the sharing of information, products and services, says Cedric Mainguy, CEO, whol.ly.com, a startup funded by French Investor Frederic Jeantet. Mainguy is a resident of the city and have felt the gap that exists between neighbors, and he wants to step soon into the global market after the usability testing in Bangalore. In 2010, he wants to try the software in New York's East Village neighborhood. "As people start posting, sharing and meeting neighbors, they appreciate the benefits of cooperation, and use the system regularly," he says. The model works well when the number of users increases. As user activity increases, a user's purchasing power increases. Over time, there are more exchanges, more neighbors over time and a wider spectrum of activities. Not limited to gated communities, the model works best for people within a 5km radius. The process to earn smiles, a gesture meaning 'thank you' for a little help given, is simple. Users register themselves on the site, see what they want, what their neighbors want, give a helping hand, meet a neighbor, and earn smiles. A user could be a resident who can spare his driver for a few hours or who has a domestic help who can take care of a neighbor's children for a short time. One hour of service is worth 10 smiles. Finally, it is the two people exchanging the skills who decide mutually how many smiles the work is worth.