Wigix
| This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (April 2009) |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | March, 2007 |
| Headquarters | Oakland, CA USA |
| Key people | James Chong, CEO & Founder Bob Lee, CTO & Founder Albert Loh, CFO & Founder |
| Industry | Online C2C and B2C Marketplace |
| Website | http://www.wigix.com |
Wigix, also known as Wigix.com, Wigix.cn, and Wigix, Inc., is an online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer marketplace whose model mimics the financial trading platforms.[1] The company name is an acronym for "Want It Got It eXchange".[2] Along with Wigix.com, the company also owns China-based ddku.com as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Wigix also owns the following domain names: wigix.com, wigix.cn, ddku.com.[3]
Founding and Early History
The company was founded in Oakland, California, on March 28, 2007, by James Chong, Bob Lee, Albert Loh.[4] Invitations to the a private beta started on June 5, 2007. After six months in private testing, the service was opened up to the public (still in beta) ten weeks later, on April 29, 2008. [5]
From its inception, Wigix is a marketplace to sell goods in the similar fashion that stocks are sold.[6] Each good/product has a single page, called an “Item Detail Page,” within the “catalog.”[7] On that page, sellers can list their own item as a “Sell Order.”[8] Buyers can view the open sell orders and agree to a price, or list a “Buy Order” at a lower price for sellers to view. [1]
Community-driven Online Marketplace
This system rides on a structured catalog that is built by page submissions from its members and managed by specially appointed members, called “Category Experts.” Members that submit pages own their submitted pages and become “Page Owners” (called “homesteaders” at launch). [9] Both Page Owners and Category Experts make the marketplace “community-driven” and are monetarily compensated for their work. [1] The use-cases for the Wigix service are: to buy, to sell, to build a portfolio for asset tracking and evaluation, and to contribute to the Wigix catalog for monetary compensation.
As a part of its community, social networking and Web 2.0 efforts, the service includes the ability to find and invite “friends.” This enables typical social website functions, including being notified on friends activity, and read-access to friends’ portfolios, watch lists, and gift registries. Other community-based features include the ability to post blogs participate in discussion threads. [10]
Milestones
Private Beta: June 5, 2007[5]
Public Beta: April 29, 2008[5]
1,000,000 Item Detail Pages: July 27, 2008[5]
2,000,000 Item Detail Pages: January 28, 2009[5]
Key Features
"Keeping Fees at Bay": To be competitive, Wigix employes a low fees strategy, advertising it in its tag line. During its beta period, listing Sell Orders or Buy Orders are free. There is also no charge for transactions that are $25 or less.[11] Other fees are less than prices offered from its main competitor, eBay.[12]
Storefronts: On October 22, 2008 [13], Wigix unveiled services for high-volume B2C sellers. It’s service, called “Storefronts”, offer a customized point of sale with inventory management, sales management and reporting tools. Each registered storefront owner receives a short URL and a web store. Store owners can manage this store inventory using shelving, smart shelving and sifting functions.[10]
Tagged Products, Discussion Threads and Blogs: On January 9, 2009[13], Wigix introduced Tagging, a function to attached a keyword to any product. This provided a way to find related items and added a cloud-based structure to the catalog, secondary to the normal catalog browsing already implemented. On March 4, 2009, the company expanded the tagging function to include discussion thread and blog postings.[10]
“Label Your Stuff”: On January 27, 2009[13], the website added photo tagging, which is the ability for members to label products in their uploaded photos. The company suggests using the feature for showcase, insurance and “total solution” selling reasons. [10]
Themed Communities: On March 4, 2009[13], the company added Themed Communities, sections of the website dedicated to a focused group of products for the sharing of stories, advice, interaction with other Wigix members, and as an avenue to contact like-minded shoppers. [10]
Key People
James Chong, Founder, CEO, Chairman of the Board. Prior to Wigix, James was founder and CEO of Cyanea Systems, a venture backed company that was sold to IBM. Prior to Cyanea, James was also CTO of PlanetRX, a public e-commerce company, and Vice President of Architecture and Planning at Charles Schwab, where he built Schwab’s 1st and 2nd generation web trading platforms.[14]
Bob Lee, Founder & CTO. Prior to Wigix, Bob was Vice President of Product Management at Cyanea Systems. Bob was also Vice President of IT at Epoch Partners/Goldman Sachs and Vice President of IT at Charles Schwab.
Albert Loh, Founder & VP Finance and Operations. Prior to Wigix, Albert was head of IBM’s Project Management Office. He has also been CFO for the Guangzhou Jianlibao Group’s Southeast Asian Region.
Tim Draper, Board Member. Tim is Founder & Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, known for advancing "viral marketing". He is also a member of the Board of Directors at The BizWorld Foundation, Singapore's Economic Advisory Council, Ukraine's Orange Circle, U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Glam, Tagworld, SocialText, Kyte.tv, Chrome Graphics, Meebo, and Increo.
Bill Burnham, Board Member. Bill is Managing General Partner of Inductive Capital that focuses on leveraging private market insights to improve public portfolio management. He was Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital Inc., an early stage investment company and at Softbank Capital Partners a late stage investment company, and held management positions at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Piper Jaffray.
Nick Donofrio, Board Member. Nick is a Fellow, and an Executive Vice President INT Alumnus of IBM. Nick is also a member of the Board of Directors at the Bank of New York Mellon, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Council for the United States and Italy, and the Genographic Project. He was Executive Vice President, IBM Corporation, responsible for a worldwide organization of 130,000 employees in research, global manufacturing & procurement, governmental programs, corporate community relations, and well as On-demand technologies.
Funding
Worldwide operations are funded by venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, based in Menlo Park, California. The firm has a previous reputation of funding successful technology companies, including Hotmail, Skype, and Meebo.[15]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/how_does_wigix_work/1 Wigix: How Does Wigix Work
- ↑ http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/29/wigix-wants-to-kill-ebay/ Venture Beat: Wigix wants to kill eBay
- ↑ http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/about_us Wigix: About Wigix, Inc.
- ↑ http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/04/the-anti-ebay-l.html Wired: The Anti-EBay Launches
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/about_us Wigix: About Us
- ↑ http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/120977971185930.xml&coll=7 The Oregonian: Wigix looks to seize eBay's turf
- ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121849293102231361.html The Wall Street Journal Online: Irked by eBay, Some Sellers Trade Elsewhere
- ↑ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/wigix-brings-order-to-world-of-online-trading/ Tech Crunch: Wigix Brings Order to World of Online Trading
- ↑ http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/wigix_glossary Wigix: Glossary
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/how_does_wigix_work/2 Wigix: Features
- ↑ http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/fees Wigix: Fees
- ↑ http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2008/05/little-wigix-ta.html#uslPageReturn USA Today: Little Wigix takes on eBay
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 http://www.wigix.com/index.php/usage/what_is_new/1 Wigix: What’s New
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/01/vic.keegan The Guardian (UK): New kids take on the dotcom dinosaurs
- ↑ http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9930528-7.html CNet News: Start-up hopes to outdo eBay with online market
External links
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