As you know the auction platform Bido.com closed down a couple of weeks ago and the assets of the platform including the domain name Bido.com (plus 82 other related domains), the software code, the user list, the website, the vanity toll free number 1-800-611Bido, and twitter account@Bido all comes with.
I’ve been told that they currently have an offer in “the mid-six figures” and will be selling the assets to the highest bidder on Tuesday May 18th.
I know they spent a ton of money in development and programming of the site and the auction platform probably has more features, bells and whistles than any of the big boys.
So this is last call.
If you have interest in this contact Jarred at Bido.com.
‘Slightly used’ 🙂 When it comes to software, extensively used ones would be preferred. But I liked the title…
More bells and whistles? I’m sure people have elanced much harder projects… 😉 (elance.com)
Rob Monster must be all over this… Uhhh oh!
Why wait until Tuesday? Take the mid six figures and laugh all the way to the bank.
“the mid-six figures”
Would that be dollars or cents?
they should have auctioned it 🙂
Here’s a thought.
This must have been the business plan all along.
Get the site built for < $10,000 by outsourcing abroad.
Get some traction & a user base
Announce phantom offer of "mid 6 figures" aka reserve price.
Laugh all the way to bank if some fool actually bids anywhere near that.
For those in the know & experienced project management, this kind of site can be replicated for < $10,000.
Scalable architecture & all that, the full works.
Don't kid yourselves.
As for user list, domainers are whores & will gravitate to where the quality domains are.
Build it & they will follow.
As for profitability, this site made as much as a kid's lemonade stand.
The ‘business’ has almost no carry forward value, mostly because it failed, and the stink of failure is hard to wash off a business going forward.
The ‘platform’ is not worth mid-six figures, because it’s easily replaced or copied.
The ‘software’ – can be easily replicated offshore.
The ‘domain’? Why not put it up for auction at one of the big conferences, and let the market decide? After all, isn’t that what the whole Bido thing was all about?!
So sad to see Sahar and friends fail on this one – I liked the concept. But at least they had the balls to try something really different – and that’s something to respect!
http://www.estibot.com/appraise.php (OUCH!)
sell it on eBay
I think the platform sucks, because of so confusion, its like if you want to become a Member, You neeed ONE SEMESTER OF CLASS Which is BIDO 101 – 5 units. even still you will fail or hard time passing the class because platform Suck!!! and too confusing.
I think they will be lucky to get Mid 5 Figures offers the max, this kind of site is easy to make if outsourced.!
Also Bells, and Whistles, do not cost alot!!
(you have deleted my comment on the last bido entry, may be no more freedom of speech on your blog, like it used to be, because sahar is your friend, he is spammer, and i will always list him as spammer)
bido.com is a typo domain of baidu.com
>domainers are whores
Speak for yourself 🙂
>As for profitability, this site made as much as a kid’s lemonade stand.
Likely less. Lemonade stands are profitable.
The new owner could make it work but there should be some fundamental changes. First, I don’t think a domain auction platform should be taking notes from Sesame Street. You are going to deter big money and be left with a kiddie allowance, like a mommy would give their kid for bringing in the groceries.
A million more times important then any technology or any sucker tricks is the hustle of finding good domains at good prices. That is where all time and energy should be put. Then you will have a positive domino effect instead of a negative one.
How do you feel about them selling your username, password, e-mail address, and relevant contact information?
Personally – I would move it from domain names to say tangibles. Peoplle could bid on say a 37″ TV and vote in which items they want to go to auction. There are enough auctions site around and about from registrars to independants, that the only way Bido will compete is to either make it a members only paying site, and list the best domains…or to drop domains all together and list some tangbile items for auction.
Then your audience becomes bigger and the profit becomes larger.
I wish Sahar and Jared all the best… many people always find the negative in stuff, but to me, these guys put their money where their mouth was, tried something different and should at least get their money back.
I don’t know about you guys, but my complimentary voting points have been reset at Bido.com ten minutes ago:)
I was initially confused by Tommy’s comment.
Then, I realized he was refering to the data being included in the software/platform/company purchase. That is acceptable business practice when one firm buys another firm or a corporate division.
Probably, the only important piece of data which is not readily available and could be compromised would be the credit card on file.
It would be a smart idea not to include the credit card data in the transaction.
When they get the new company up and running, the customer can re-enter a credit card.
Tommy
In the TOS you accepted to use the site, it probably allowed the sale of the info
Based on what I know, the total invested into bido over the last few years was in the 7 figure range. They had an army of programmers and tech guys, they spent a ton at all the conferences, hired a lot of models and video crews to get the name out. It’s a shame the system didn’t take off. Jarred and the rest of the crew really worked their butts off and it’s sad to see it go. I too agree however that the system was confusing and complicated and required a bigger audience. Best of luck to them in the sale and best of luck to the new owner.
I have a very hard time believing this website could be sold for even close to six figures, but who knows, there have been crazier things to happen. The site itself could be easily duplicated.
No disrespect to Sahar and Jarred, but Bido got what it deserved. The only thing it had going for it was a great domain name. Everything else was awful: one domain a day, buggy release, buggy email blasts, crappy domains, feature overbloat, confusing platform, and incessant spam posts from Sahar on his blog (and I still get the Monday morning email that my points have been reset!).
Latonas, on the other hand, is the real deal. They keep it simple and offer good domain names.
Hopefully the bido team will learn from their mistakes and realize greater success in their next venture. I tip my hat to them for having the guts to try something new.
I agree with Luc assessment of what the Bido.com folks spent on the project
@Mikey – Good idea. The interface still sucks lemons though. The crowd sourced domain selection was one of the few good features.
I bid $100.00 USD.
BIDO is Cablinasian for “Bang A Lot of Chicks”. Tiger Woods told me so.
$100 bid retracted, timestamp.
Any selling price over $5,000 is unjustifiable to me unless the new owner really puts effort into this. I’m pretty sure I could replicate the entire site, with its own CVCV .com domain, for $5,000
Six digits? Unlike.ly. Sedos, Monikers are not interested. Who would buy it? The asset is okay – the price tag will be lower. But let us see.
Randy if you acquire bido can I have double bido points and unlimited raffle tickets?
The comments above reminded me of 2 comments posted last week.
(paraphasing the poster)
1. Domainers are lowballers. They tell you something is worthless until they own it. 🙂
2. There are talkers and there are doers.
I can easily say that I could run for U.S. president in 2012.
But, could I really do it? Talk is cheap.
I give the BIDO guys a lot of credit for what they attempted to do.
Have you analyzed who they where trying to compete with?
Namejet.
Which is owned by 2 major companies. Enom/Demand and Network Solutions. Their combined net worth is approaching a billion dollars. Enom is experienced in running an domain auction since they originally operated as Enom Club Drop.
Snapnames.
Which is owned by DomainSponsor/Moniker/Oversee. They have been doing auctions for OVER 6 yrs. And, their net worth is $ 1/2 billion??
Both of these competitors have experienced IT staff and deep pockets which makes it difficult to compete.
Regular
Don’t forget about Sedo.com and Afternic.com
“bido.com is a typo domain of baidu.com”
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77526228
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77526225
Who bought bido? Are they going to relaunch it? Can I use my existing 5 bido points?
Can I use my same login?
Can I bid on domains?
Can I email them?
Dear Bido
Tell you what. Let me have the name, infrastructure, software and rights to market it my way. I will need 1 or two programmers to untangle your web of a mess. Lend me a SEO guru for a day or two, throw in all the email addresses to date, and I will have your puppy up and running within 60 calendar days where the marketplace not only drools over the platform – Bido remains the envy of all other domaining auction sites. Pretty big promises but consider this…
Sedo is big. Namejet is mathematically kool. Afternic is an empire. SnapNames is in damage control. The only way to beat the big boys is by doing something they can not copy and paste. And what is so kool about domaining is that each domain name is different.
There is a way to ensure that the customers (owners) open their portfollios and place their domain for bids and biz on your site instead of the competitors.
The platform right now is too cumbersome…filled with table scraps so to speak. The quality of the names on auction were themselves actually hindering your growth. Heck one of your biggest sales was a typo domain.
As Peter Drucker once said…” Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.”
Be first (which you were and still are. Offer a dramatic difference – which you do with Bido. Those two elements alone should have drove you to great profits as a recent Harvard study proved that by being first to market and offer a dramatic difference in your product or service, your chances for profits jump by 370%.
So what went wrong? There was no target set. The original idea was amazing. Then you started building on it, hoping that if you build it – they will come. Many did, but when they got there, they witnessed a relatively slow download time (studies show – you will lose big if it takes too long for your site to load, refresh and update.) Next problem was navigation. It took me a few days alone just to find my way around and see all that was to offer. It comes right down to the product/service you are offering.
The solution is simple. Quality domains means your product is viewed as a quality service, meaning more visitors, more bids, more demand.
Now I also believe the only way you are going to get some quality domains is by fixing your current platform. I know you spent a whack of money on this, and many the public saw you lead with new technology – new features and a cutting edge approach in the domain resale industry.
But again… My guess is that you launched this too early. and you did not have a final product/service blueprinted. An idea was born, a framework built, but did you know what the final product would look like prior to execution? You just added and added kool stuff, hoping it was a receipe for success.
I see your bido site in a different way. One that will have the big boys going “Hmmm” in their minds, keeping a close eye on you.
Don’t get me wrong, I won’t do it for charity. OK – maybe I should. It will cost you return airfare from Ottawa to Vancouver. And a hotel room please. Meet me at T.R.A.F.F.I.C
and we can share ideas as if you wish…
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” GB Shaw
Edison once said…“Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.”
My two cents and as you can see, i will not quit in finding a way out to Vancouver.
We ran short on cash for our baby. I am broke, having poured all my money and time into my business plan. Should I too quit? A beatiful $500K store, partners, all the time and money poured into it.
Do not let it go. “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” O. Holmes.
In its present state … i personally would bid between $12K- 35K tops – but what do I know…
If I was so damn smart – I would have figured a way to get money so I can book my plane tickets for the conference in a few weeks from now… Hope to see ya at TRAFFIC…
regular visitor,
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Bido knew what they were up against at the outset.
Do you people ever wonder (or remember) why Ron Jackson left this sinking ship at the outset?
Odds on b/c the business model sucked!
Spending 7 figures – I presume most of it went on marketing, dancing naked girls etc – these days is just plain stupid.
It’s not 1999-2000 – don’t people ever learn?
Fact is, domainers are not going with Snapnames, Namejet b/c of the “brand” or “net worth” of the parent co – it’s simply b/c that’s where the quality domains are!!
The fact that Latona is doing very well is testament to sound savvy business principles, marketing thru word of mouth & well placed ads on domain forums etc.
I mean, reaching domainers is not difficult at all & doesn’t have to be expensive – it’s a small number & they all congregate to the main domain forums or blogs.
Aggro
Bravo Aggro… Quality determines quantity of sales.
I agree Rick Latonna and company are exemplary in their dealings.
No form letters. Straight replies via email, fanatastic customer service and qulaity domains.
sounds like a receipe for success to me.
Mike
Sane Ingredients
Same Results.
Domainers with quality domains won’t use this type of service, not before , not now nor ever…
A company with more money than brains will buy Bido similar to Sedo buying Revenue Direct and Parking Panel.
Domainer
You are absolutely right. Hence the final push to sell.
Teasing the public about 6 figures deals, etc… Can’t blame them though. They poured alot of cash into this and want to get back what they can.
Too bad – as all they have to do is simplify things. They atract a different audience at present compared to Sedo and others, and they could have easily found their niche if they would have spend more time working on the product/service instead of tryin gto fine tune the inside of it.
Quote
“regular visitor,
You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Thank you for clearing that up.
🙂
“Bido knew what they were up against at the outset.”
I didn’t say they didn’t know who they were competing against.
If anything, Sahar visited those sites everyday as a domainer.
And, I DO KNOW why Ron left BIDO.
Sahar can sell a couple more caskets and he’ll be fine.
Any news from the field Michael?
** I’ve been told that they currently have an offer in “the mid-six figures” and will be selling the assets to the highest bidder on Tuesday May 18th *****
So…what happened to this ?
Did they take that offer “in the mid 6 figures”? LOL
Aggro
I was told they had a several offers in the mid even high six figures, but selling a business is not like selling a domain, there are more complicated issues and its going to take some time to get it done.
There you have it
Over 2 months later and still “Bido has ceased operation as of May 5, 2010. All transactions and accounts will be gracefully finalized and closed.” Maybe the check bounced.
This is old post, I have read it earlier but just rediscovered it again today. I read all the comments to see what did people say at that time and what still holds good.
I downloaded Bido.com’s recent sales (30 days from Feb 13, 2015-March15, 2015) .
Total sales volume is $2343.00. Bido.com charges 12% commission, which means Bido is making roughly $300 per month !!!
Which is astonishing low given the price tags discussed above. How they survive with $300 revenue per month. That would be pay for atleast one support guy, they have had hired offshore.
Let me know where I am wrong.