TradeMe

I signed up for the New Zealand Software Association and attended their monthly dinner in a restaurant at a yacht club. Rowan Sampson, one of the founders of TradeMe.co.nz gave a talk on their business. They recently sold for a gazillion dollars to an Australian newspaper syndicate, so they are quite famous in NZ.

TradeMe is the eBay of NZ, with an ethos reminiscent of Craig's List e.g. a dating section, having the "community" vote on contentious issues like whether to auction the chainsaw used to chop down the tree at One Tree Hill (a significant Auckland landmark). The presentation style was refreshing -- mostly about considering the user experience, understanding the demographics of your user base etc. PowerPoint without bullets, and very few words. I was reminded of a presentation by Lawrence Lessig (Stanford law professor who is well known for work on Creative Commons) that was more like a Laurie Anderson multimedia performance -- single words flashing by on screen behind him.

TradeMe accounts for 2/3 of all web pages served up in NZ. I assume they are hosted within NZ. I wonder if there is sane pricing for broadband somewhere.