Facebook Group Takes on New Zealand Auction Website Giant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Facebook Group Takes on New Zealand Auction Website Giant

New Zealanders are getting angry at TradeMe for the rising fees and bad experiences, and many are working together to design, build and promote a New Zealand owned alternative to the popular auction website.

A Facebook group named “What's Wrong with Trademe?!” was created this week to allow people to post their frustrations, and is backed by local website development company Minion Interactive.

According to Minion Interactive employee Stuart Taoro-Ah Sin, anger and resentment towards the auction site giant runs deep, particularly among people who have bad experiences in the past.

“I was surprised by the level of frustration expressed in these messages”, Taoro-Ah Sin said. “The need for a decent alternative is a lot higher than most people realise.”

The comments posted are a mix of serious and humorous, with one person posting “I want to be able to sell children without complaints from Trademe”. In response to this comment, Taoro-Ah Sin stated “While we encourage people to speak freely, obviously we can't take all of these comments too seriously.”

Minion Interactive plan to take these comments and build an auction website “for New Zealanders, by New Zealanders”. There have been many attempts at launching alternative auction websites in the past, the most popular of which is sella.co.nz. With TradeMe having almost 3 million active members, Minion Interactive has a long way to go before they will be able to knock New Zealand's second most popular website off it's perch.

ends

© Scoop Media