Bark.com - Any views?

[Gilmore]

Afternoon,

Anyone used Bark.com before?

Concept looks good to me but always thought keeping two sides of a market happy is never an easy job?

Interested in both customer / provider views.

Have used previously as a customer for booking a DJ funnily enough and all was quite straightforward.

[Simpo Two]

I signed up to Bark for a year looking for photography work. I got about 10 enquiries but they were all 'low rent', people grubbing about for the lowest price. One turned into work and that paid for the membership. But really it wasn't the sort of work I was looking for and I didn't renew.

[akirk]

Had a tennis coaching business that they contacted a lot - not because we made any contact with them, or had any contract with them...
100% of the 'relevant enquiries' they sent to us were irrelevant and useless...

biggest load of rubbish I have seen for a while based on that!

[Frimley111R]

I think that with a lot of these type of sites it attracts people just looking for the lowest cost service. However, if you are ok with that and can use this just as an 'in' so that you can build your revenue from that client then it may be worth doing? Possibly worth a try.

As with marketing generally, its best to try as many types as you can to see which work for you and which don't.

[Gilmore]

Interesting feedback guys, thanks.

I’ve always been fascinated by marketplace businesses and lots have become aggregators very quickly.

Achieving the balance of competitive quality leads, with competitive quality providers and service as well as generating sufficient revenue for the marketplace owners is the key and by no means an easy job!

Thumbtack is a ‘unicorn’ in the US that has scaled quite quickly and offers the same services.

Tempted to have a go at building a marketplace myself during the lockdown focused on connecting local people with local professionals and businesses.

Not looking to create a Unicorn but fancy having a go as side project.

[Frimley111R]

Scaled quickly because it probably had a few million invested in it. it offers nothing new. Such sites have been around for years, the real key is marketing and resourcing, not the site itself.

if you do fancy it, try a niche for high value items

[Gilmore]

Frimley111R said:

Scaled quickly because it probably had a few million invested in it. it offers nothing new. Such sites have been around for years, the real key is marketing and resourcing, not the site itself.

if you do fancy it, try a niche for high value items

Agree.

Attracting and keeping both the supply and demand sides happy is the challenge.

Will give it a go to pass some time!