The next Webstock conference in Wellington will shortly be upon us.
On the Thursday afternoon I have the privilege of hosting a fireside chat with Sam Morgan … you know the slight red-headed fulla who started Trade Me? :-)
Here is how it’s described on the Webstock site:
“Join us at the end of the day for a relaxed Q&A with NZ’s own Sam Morgan.
We’ll share some stories from the very early days of Trade Me through to the sale to Fairfax and beyond. We’ll also talk about what Sam is doing next, including technology investments and social ventures.
Rowan was the first Trade Me employee who didn’t share a surname with Sam, so is well placed to cover the questions that others don’t know or don’t dare to ask.”
Hmmm … I don’t know about that last part, but it should be a fun session nonetheless.
There are lots of things that I’m keen to ask him about, but I also thought I’d get your help and suggestions.
If there is a question you wish you could ask Sam now is your chance!
Just leave a comment below and I’ll see what I can do.
And, if you want to come along to Webstock and see it live and you still haven’t reserved your ticket, time is running out so get in quick.
My question(s) to Sam are:
“At what point do you think TradeMe grew from early adoption to ‘mainstream’ New Zealand? What was the most contributing factor which pushed it through this hoop?”
“One of the main reasons you were successful is that you didn’t have to limit the functionality of your service to protect current revenues (as opposed to Trade and Exchange which you quote as being the inspiration for Trade Me.) Do you see the same thing happening to Trade Me? If so will you react quickly enough or sacrifice short term revenue to protect your leadership position?”
The line of thinking here is that Trade Me is quite protective of its data and a closed system. If a competitor comes along that is more open and starts gaining market share will Trade Me react quickly enough or think they are not vulnerable?
Nowhere near as serious a question as the previous two, but I’d love to know if Sam ever read/reads the message boards on Trade Me :)
Why do you choose not to create a software conduit to trademe so that business can effectively control their trademe auctions? As this considerably reduces possible revenue for you and us
hey i am doing research on you for my homework.
i need to know how much did you invest initially in trade me and how much did you sell it for? please write back as soon as you can. this goes towards my NCEA level 1 certificate
thankyou
Did you ever get to that infamous point of “never, never, never give up”?
Did you ever wish you were in the U.S. with all that VC money and those high valuations? :)
If you could do it all again, how would you do it?