It was during a TRAFFIC auction that Sahar came up to me with the idea of a one domain a day, domain auction.
So when I say it the idea of Bido was born during a TRAFFIC auction that’s exactly what happened.
As the TRAFFIC auction was going, Sahar sat next to me, in the auction room and drew out his vision for what became Bido.com
Sahar wrote out his plan on the fly, and then asked me “are you in or are you out”?
I was out.
Not because I didn’t trust Sahar, or believe in his vision, or his abilities.
I’m just not the kind of guy that decides to get into a business in a minute.
Yet although I opted out, I always wanted the best for Sahar on a personal and professional level.
So I took many opportunities to share my opinions on Bido as it progressed.
Bido.com in my opinion failed for one reason and one reason only.
Quality of inventory.
Or in this case, the lack thereof.
Its not news to anyone in the domain industry that Bido had, on a daily basis, pretty poor inventory.
And there lies the problem.
If you have an inventory of 100 domains in a day, none of which seemed to be worth the $28 minimum bid, you have a pretty crappy lineup.
Then the problem snowballs.
The more crap domains you have, the worse your results will be.
The worse the results, the worse the next submissions get.
Quality attracts quality.
Crap brings more crap.
Let me be clear, Bido’s failure brings me no joy.
And I wouldn’t say anything here, that I didn’t tell the Bido folks many times in an attempt to stear them in the right direction.
Bido spent a tremdous amount of time and money building out a fancy back end system with a lot of complicated bells and whistles.
But at the end of the day having a great system only works if you have the goods to sell.
100% agree.
Great name, great platform, great group of guys, but no stellar inventory to keep us coming back.
Granted, finding great names to sell on a daily basis would be very tough.
Sad news… wish the guys the best.
Aron
Am pretty bummed about this, I’ve been following it’s progress from the time it went live, tried to offer constructive criticism along the way too.
I’ll agree with your views on quality, but then you have auction platforms succeeding even w/ a lot of crap, maybe not an exclusive domain auction platform though. A lot of domains on bido which didn’t get a single bid were worth a lot more than $28, just didn’t have enough buyers imho.
I’m sure it will be back, bigger and stronger, the bells and whistles didn’t help tbh and hopefully whoever buys it will get rid of them and concentrate on creating an effective platform.
Its all about content. Same thing here.
Plus Sahar never seemed to listen to his customers! Everone kept saying quality and he kept doing something else.
Plus Sahar never seemed to listen to his customers! Everone kept saying quality and he kept doing something else.
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“Quality” it isn’t something you just change, you need to attract it, and that is very difficult to do, everyone wants it and few have it.
Whoever can run an auction and attract the small minority of quality names will do well, but there is no easy answer to it. It is a bit like starting a record company and saying “all I really need is some great musicians”.
I agreed with the blog regarding poor quality of inventory. The staff members were very friendly and I was thinking to submit some of my domains. But after I browsed through their recent sale lists as well as current domain name list, I decided not to go ahead with my domains.
I thought it would be better for bido to have a screening kind of thing rather than having junk domains all over.
never liked the idea, they were scrapping bottom of the barrel.
Biz model was flawed as well. From the auction house’s perspective unless you’re selling monster names, one a day might work. Selling garbage once a day you end up with garbage. WHy sell 1 name a day, where you can sell 100s.
Damn, too bad,
But the inventory is the most important factor offcourse , not all the whistles and bells.
Hoping to see them back after reestructuring some factors
Why sell 1 domain a day? Because no one else is offering this kind of elite marketplace and providing a reliable inventory that is consistently newsworthy.
The next level is to extend the reach into the actual business community … which is enormous, and who literally have very little knowledge of, or involvement in, premium domain names. The domainer concentric circle is microscopically small and would not be the focus of this type model.
That is the next direction. Create, build, and grow a new kind of marketplace that carries premium only, newsworthy domain names marketed to non-domainers.
Not saying this is easy, but the money is there and the economic opportunity is there. The commission for this unique brokerage needs to be set much higher (at least 30%) in order to attract and compensate truly talented sales staff who can orchestrate a real marketing effort, search out and negotiate with leading companies in different business sectors.
Every sale would be press released, and anyone learning of this new company would come to understand that the domains being represented are top quality domains. This is like going to a car show and seeing one exotic, luxury sports car after another – each unique, each beautiful and worthy of your time and attention. You cannot host a car show with rusted out old cars and mediocre commodity level, low budget vehicles and expect to draw 5 figure (and higher) buyers of quality domain assets.
Perception is everything. I believe there are a very substantial number of domainers (with great portfolios) who will pony up and work with a committed sales staff to help create this marketplace. The inventory will come … when the right people and model are put together. The domain name industry is not petering out as some have suggested. It is reshaping and is still relevant particularly in regard to high quality domain names.
wrong business model?
Sahar and Jarred did an outstanding job attempting to keep Bido moving forward. However, it was an uphill battle. The economy and decline in ppc revenue which effected domain values and available revenue was working against them.
The domainers that will miss Bido the most are all of the lowballers.
The lowballers thought it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Unfortunately, Bido and a number of sellers took a beating.
Snoopy and others are complaining that Bido didn’t offer any quality domains. The complainers sell domains elsewhere, why didn’t they list them on Bido?
I applaud Sahar and Jarred for attempting to do what 95% of domainers couldn’t do. There are talkers and there are doers. Most domainers are talkers. Sahar and Jarred are doers.
As it has been stated here and elsewhere, success is not a strait line. We all will have some detours along the way.
Fortunately, Sahar and Jarred will learn from this and apply that knowledge to their next venture.
The great thing about the domain category, there are opportunities in any direction we wish to move.
Sahar and Jarred,
Good luck on your next project. And, we ALL wish you the best of successes in the future.
RIP 🙁
Thank you BIDO for helping get the domain business going. Your efforts were exactly what the industry needed.
Change is good. I will keep my ear to the tracks for your next venture.
sad to hear this..im a bido customer and when i heard this i was somewhat shocked in them throwing in the towel. sometimes you take a loss and move forward. there was some good inventory, it wasnt all bad. i bought names on bido, sold names on bido. there customer care was top notch, they always took the time to speak to me, was fun to watch and there progress.
now having said that, was there bad inventory. you bet there was. i would have rather seen them do a smaller amount of domain names, better names and limit the amounts being auctioned off to say 20 names a day. i liked the revenue domain name idea and traffic names idea before they gave up. but i was not going put any of my domain names on a 2 year multiple or even 3 years out to draw bidders come in and low ballers.
they system was so slow and frustrating. sometimes the fancy sites do worse things then good. i had a hard time learning all the complex type of programs. sometimes simple, easy to understand works the best.
with all the contacts they had, the type of inventory and domainer friends with huge portfolios, they were not sure on bido either. for the smaller domainers who are looking for flips buy a name for 8 bucks sell it 28 to 150 or whatever did work if the name was solid or a long tail. an roi is an roi imo.
i also wonder what kind of an impact this played with rick rolling out similar program and how he will do.
i wish the founders the very best and they tried. i was happy and wanted bido to work. tough times for all of us.
regards,
a profitable bido customer
Bido was a great platform, no question about it. Probably the single best auction platform in the business.
However, like others said, they didn’t listen to their customers.
Not just about quality (although that was a major factor), but also about the chat…that was a great way for people to stir attention to auctions.
In the beginning, there was a real community feel to Bido and then it went by the wayside.
I saw the potential of Bido early on in the beginning and asked Sahar if he would lease the software. I wanted to build something similar but do all of things right which I and other customers saw they were doing wrong. But of course, they didn’t want to lease it.
Anyhow, they are good people and hard workers and they will succeed on their next venture. Unfortunately, I suspect this was a VERY expensive lesson to learn.
All the best in future ventures…
I feel it was un$u$tainable…
A few pitiful .mx Bido results (recent) , allegedly great names there..
attn : people planning to invest on ” .co ”
(Mexico a much larger, developed country and not only neighbor to the USA but one of the largest trading partners)
Advert.mx 100 USD 28 Abr 2010
Opinion.mx 100 USD 26 Abr 2010
Legales.mx 100 USD 26 Abr 2010
Stop.mx 360USD 22 Abr 2010
Use.mx 360USD 22 Abr 2010
Christ.mx 100USD 22 Abr 2010
Supermercado.mx 189 USD 21 Abr 2010
Senor.mx 126USD 21 Abr 2010
Electronicos.mx 112USD 21 Abr 2010
Properties.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Tourist.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Fortuna.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Fone.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Fabrica.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Telephone.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Frutas.mx 200USD 20 Abr 2010
Actores.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Cigarro.mx 108USD 20 Abr 2010
Bot.mx 100USD 20 Abr 2010
Six.mx 100USD 16 Abr 2010
Mes.mx 50 USD 12 Abr 2010
Prescriptions.com.mx 50 USD 7 Abr 2010
Balneario.mx 155 USD 31 Mar 2010
Gasoline.mx 65 USD 31 Mar 2010
Flats.mx 78 USD 31 Mar 2010
Ships.mx 65 USD 30 Mar 2010
Gambler.mx 212 USD 30 Mar 2010
Petrol.mx 72 USD 30 Mar 2010
Haciendas.mx 247 USD 29 Mar 2010
Bonds.mx 60 USD 24 Mar 2010
Own.mx 60 USD 24 Mar 2010
Fur.mx 60 USD 24 Mar 2010
Boo.mx 60 USD 23 Mar 2010
Veleros.mx 89 USD 18 Mar 2010
Population.mx 55 USD 18 Mar 2010
Mobiliario.mx 120 USD 17 Mar 2010
Pal.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Hip.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Bag.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Jam.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Cup.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Zip.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Tag.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Tub.mx 28 USD 15 Mar 2010
Practice.mx 28 USD 12 Mar 2010
Designs.mx 60 USD 12 Mar 2010
Mob.mx 60 USD 11 Mar 2010
Lengua.mx 135 USD 11 Mar 2010
Death.mx 28 USD 11 Mar 2010
Christ.com.mx 50 USD 10 Mar 2010
Now.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Why.mx 193 USD 10 Mar 2010
Gal.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
Cut.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
Two.mx 139 USD 10 Mar 2010
Six.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Ten.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Customs.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
For.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
Wed.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Our.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Transit.mx 66 USD 10 Mar 2010
Agents.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
Sea.mx 102 USD 10 Mar 2010
Government.mx 60 USD 10 Mar 2010
Turkey.mx 70 USD 4 Mar 2010
Palabras.biz 28 USD 3 Mar 2010
Machine.mx 47 USD 2 Mar 2010
icasinos.info 28 USD 1 Mar 2010
the writing is in the wall …
I would beg to differ. CCtld domains that were put up were always worth much more than the 30 $ minimum requirement. I dint go for most of them because it wasnt in my niche. I go only for education related domains. Those were once in a blue moon and with the bido points etc, it seemed complicated. The auctions IMHO dint stay up for more than 24 hours and I’m not the one to just grab a name in an auction. I like to contact the buyer and put a private bid. I also like a list of names on sale by the buyer than just a single domain. Looks like I got less competition in the bidding and hence more chances to win the bid.
I guess its fair to say bido was a buyers market where you could’ve grabbed premium names at throwaway prices.
Shame it has to end.
Never used Bido personally but I wish those guys the best and I am sure they will find success in future ventures.
Thanks, Jim
Oh, and I’d like to mention that domains like Stop.co.in , Available.co.in werent accepted at bido when I initially put them up for sale. It said the sales reserve was too high. Well let the buyers decide !
“I’m not the one to just grab a name in an auction. I like to contact the buyer and put a private bid.”
I hope I’m misreading this.
Are you saying that you saw the domain in auction on Bido so you wanted to circumvent the competition and Bido commission by contacting the seller directly?
Sad to see it close. Great deals on some great keyword domains. I have already made a few bucks ppc from fone.mx.
All the best to everyone at Bido and much success with future ventures.
Hello Mike,
My great hope for Bido, was that it would be a good platform for very special .com names. It soon became very evident that knowone with special names came, even though the platform was built.
This and many other creations by domainers has proven that just because you have a domain name does not mean instant success. Especially when other front running companies have built their BRAND on the web. Still there are many future successes to come in the near future. Those companies that continually create and innovate will be the most successful. The worst thing you can do is protect your turf instead of innovate to capture market share. This is being done by Apple as we speak. They are following in microsofts and all other closed source operations who obstruct more than create. Apple is ripe for a huge fall along with all those other companies that do not adopt open source channels. Create+Innovate or ???
Gratefully,
Jeff
Someone above pointed out that domainers that knew Sahar didn’t even put their domains on the site. . . but someone pointed out to me another thing was that Sahar himself didn’t seem to put his own domains on the platform.
If you have poor inventory and your customers tell you that, there’s an easy fix for guys like Sahar. What’s the deal, if the founders don’t take the same risk they expect you to take?
@adam interesting and agree…good point…
Bido.com Great domain name, But NOT GREAT FOUNDERS!!
I only went to bido.com once in whole 2 years. I remember SAHAR POSTING EVERDAY ABOUT HIS BIDO on his blog. WE WERE SPAMMED ON DNFORUM.COM. Sahar had nothing to talk about but BIDO.COM, And he even SPAMMED HIS BLOG!!!
I was reader at sahar blog, not anymore, I call him SPAMMER now a days. Bido Was never meant to work, ONE DOMAIN A DAY, AND we are bidding on domain which is freshly Registered. Sahar says , You snooze and You lose, if we don’t bid on these names below,
onsiteanalysis.com
iCrown.com
AssaultGames.com
scentedbodylotions.com
What the heck is this, I can hand registered better names at godaddy than these names. WTF, First of all you are going to do one domain a day, Then Moving on to the MANY DOMAINS A DAY….With NOT EVEN REG FEE domains worthy inventory.
I do not remember Bido.com for auctions, I REMEMBER THEM FOR SPAMM ALL THE FORUMS, AND ALL THE PLACES, So I think they should rebrand themselves Biggest SPAMMER OF DOMAIN Auctions award goes TO BIDO!
Just a Friendly Thought, I will advice them and Sahar, DO NOT START ANYTHING WITH SPAMMING!!! And also, YOU Guys will not win in the domain auctions Regardless, Like I have said First day, when Bido came out.
Another Friendly Thought, Launch a Ebay kind of website, since you guys have Nice Platform, USE THAT FOR SOME OTHER SITE, OR WOOT.COM ETC. You guys will make more money.
LAST Friendly thought, DO NOT SPAM!!!! ALLL OVER THE PLACE, I MEAN NOT ATLEAST YOUR OWN BLOG!!!!
Honestly SPEAKING, BIDO.COM SUCKED!
Thhere is some goodwill in this business model. It cann be modified to serve various purposes. It can also be scaled. Here is the note from the owners: “In short, it just did not work for us. I should add, this does not mean we couldn’t have made it work in six months or a year or two, just that we were tired of trying so hard, and decided to move on. Surprisingly, within minutes after our announcement, offers to buy the site and technology have been pouring in (current offers range is in six figures US$). We will run a sale process for the next seven days and expect to make a decision by next Tuesday.” Source: http://www.conceptualist.com/
Good luck too both of them! Whom ever buys it needs to have an auction per HOUR!!!
Starting at 9:00am and ending at 9:00 pm…..(plus better domains). They wanted to give me $28 for hummer.net…No Thanks!!!!! I been with them since the beginning and I was even a commentator. If I only had the money……..
Domo,
Anyone that would know that people looking at .com.mx want SPANISH .com.mx (ascii or idn) . Why english?
Those are in english… NO wonder why they did not get much fanfare.
I would rather have cinco.com.mx instead of five.com.mx for example.
“Snoopy and others are complaining that Bido didn’t offer any quality domains. The complainers sell domains elsewhere, why didn’t they list them on Bido?”
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I’m not “complaining” about it, I’m stating it as a fact. I believe the reason why the site failed was because of low quality listings. Why would I put high quality names on site with a whole lot of low quality auctions?
Like I said “there is no easy answer” to the quality dilemma, either the model works or it doesn’t.
Not to mention the low quality names will get low bids as the experienced domainers stayed clear..
Let’s see how the afterlife develops. Best of luck!
probaly this kind of auction sites can work if the domains sold are better and higher priced
j permalink
Domo,
Anyone that would know that people looking at .com.mx want SPANISH .com.mx (ascii or idn) . Why english?
Those are in english… NO wonder why they did not get much fanfare.
I would rather have cinco.com.mx instead of five.com.mx for example.
*************
of course .
although eventually .mx will take over , the .mx releese just caused more confusion for the benefit of .com (next .ar the longer the wait the more pain and confusion )BTW ask Latona how his x,xxx .com.mx keywords are doing ?
My post is geared towards those “day dreamers” that are thinking about going for english words .co
One more time:
Mexico a much larger, developed country and not only neighbor to the USA but one of the largest trading partners
I am not surprised at all. From one domain A DAY to auctioning like crazy, it was obvious from start that these people had NO SOLID BIZ plan to start a Business.
sorry to see you go but your deserved it.
“sorry to see you go but your deserved it.”
We all have our daily successes and failures. That is life.
Unless, you were working inside Bido, you really don’t know all of the obstacles that must have worn them down.
Unfortunately, some people find it easy to criticize from the cheap seats.
FarHad
Cheap shot and not accurate.
They absolutely had a plan from the first day Sahar drew it out for me.
The plan did not work but they had a plan.
Sahar and Jarred are very smart people
They did nothing “to deserve” failure.
“so we have reset your complimentary voting points to 2220”
Just look at the business concept before judging my email. A kid can look at the potential for making money with this system and say “ARE you CRAZY?”
“so we have reset your complimentary voting points to 2220”
I do no care what anyone says, if there were smart they would show it by at least to exit with dignity. Which business gives 24hr notice to close?
smart business man plan for exit as well. there were no explanation but “Good bye” and we are trying to sell our business domain name and technology for SIX figures. That is almost as stupid as the business.
It appears you have an ax to grind.
Maybe, you are annoyed because you can’t buy domains there anymore at bargain prices?
Or, you annoyed you can’t flip domains there anymore?
I assume that is why you are antagonistic about Bido’s closing?
I’m positive they lost money on every transaction on Bido.
I guess they decided this week, enough is enough.
I can’t blame them.
I wish them well.
Farhad
I said they had a plan from the beginning.
I did not say I thought its was a great plan.
Many very smart hard working people, including myself make bad decisions.
Not everything I have ever done worked.
I’ve had my share of failures and bad decisions.
Yet again they didn’t “deserve to fail”
While I do not know him personally, I have a great deal of respect for Sahar and what he has accomplished in his life (not as familiar with Jarred’s story). For Sahar, this is minor speed bump on his way to bigger and better things. Sahar took a chance within an industry he has already accomplished a great deal on his own. Quite simply, he has nothing to prove, period.
All business has changed dramatically over the last 2 years and nobody could have foresaw the extent of it. In the end, if you bat 500 you end up far far wealthier and fulfilled then those who bat 1000 on the sidelines because they played it safe and never took a swing. Cheers to you Sahar, I wish you well in your future endeavors.
Minor speed bump my ass. As far as I know whomever by Bido or assets is simply stupid and would fail.
As you said It was a SPAM site more than anthing else.
From the beginning I could never understand there site. I never seemed to get there when the auctions where happening and I tried to list a domain on the site and never figured it out. So I stopped following the site. Shocked to see that it is gone tho.