Listia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Listia (disambiguation).
Listia Inc.
Listia-logo.png
Type of businessPrivate
FoundedAugust 6, 2009 (2009-08-06)
HeadquartersMountain View, California, U.S.
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Gee-Hwan Chuang, James Fong
Key peopleGee-Hwan Chuang (CEO)[1][2][self-published source?]
James Fong (President)
IndustryInternet, online marketplace
Employees70+
URLwww.listia.com

Listia is a free online marketplace and mobile app for trading goods between individuals without using money. The platform has a system known as Listia credits to facilitate the trades. Users earn credits for giving away items they no longer need and can then use credits to get items that other users have listed. The marketplace uses an auction system where users bid on each other's items until the auction ends and the highest bidder wins. The user who listed the item then arranges for a pickup or ships the item directly to the winner.[3]

In addition to the web site, Listia is also available as a native mobile app on both Android and Apple iOS devices.

Users may leave feedback at the end of transactions and there is a dispute system available, should someone not follow through with stated rules. The Listia support team handle cases and acts as a mediator between the buyer and seller. Sellers have the option to charge for shipping or provide free shipping. Buyers can filter listings based on their preferred shipping method.

History[]

Listia was soft launched July 26, 2009[by whom?][4] and publicly launched on August 6, 2009.[3][5] In 2010, the site passed the 1,000,000 auction mark and was named one of the top 100 websites of 2010 by PC Magazine.[6]

On January 31, 2012 Listia announced that they had over 1 million registered users, with listings in over 3,000 cities. They also launched their official Android app.[7]

On July 18, 2012 Listia launched their Rewards Store to allow users to get brand new electronics and other goods with their Listia credits from big online retailers. The company stated that “by creating a Rewards Store, we hope to incentivize more people to unlock all the idle value sitting in their closets and homes.” [8][9]

Funding[]

Listia originally received funding of $15,000 from startup funding firm, Y Combinator.[3] In October 2009 Listia received $400,000 in funding from Implistic Capital in an angel round with Adam Pearsall joining the board of directors.[10] In April 2011, Listia raised an additional $1.75M in funding from Andreessen-Horowitz, SV Angel and other investors.[11] They also announced the launch of their iPhone app to bring the marketplace to mobile devices. Led by General Catalyst Listia received $9M in Series A funding in October 2013, Neil Sequeira also joined the board of directors. The funding will be used to help develop their mobile apps and internationally in 2014.[12]

Partnerships[]

On Jan. 18, 2013 Listia Partnered with Best Buy to offer various items on Listia to its members. The users may use their virtual currency to purchase new merchandise which is fulfilled by Best Buy using the BBYOpen API.[13]

Listia has also partnered with Walmart in 2014 to increase the types of merchandise available in the "Rewards Store" beyond electronics and gift cards.[14]

Charities[]

Listia has a monthly charity program[15] that donates up to $4,000 each month to two charities chosen by the company and community. In the past, Listia has raised money for charities such as the ASPCA and the American Red Cross, among others. Listia users can help raise money for the charities by purchasing stars with their credits each month.[16]

Listia Credits[]

Listia has created a system called Listia Credits to help facilitate trading on the site. Users earn credits during sign-up and then continue to earn more as they place items in the marketplace. Purchasing credits is also an option, and is Listia's main business model. Users may also gain credits by leaving feedback, completing offers on the site, participating in promotions, and general courtesies.[17]

Closed Loop System

Listia credits are not classified as a true currency, but are a closed-loop stored value[18] system. Credits are usable only within the limited scope of the Listia marketplace and cannot be exchanged or redeemed for money at any time.[19] Credits also cannot be gifted or transmitted between users outside of a legitimate auction in the marketplace.

Credits to Cash

Starting in 2015, Listia silently released the option to sell credits for cash to select users. In order to qualify, the user must have the Trusted Seller's Badge (15 consecutive positive seller feedback on auctions they hosted and maintained a minimum 95% seller rating for 20 days)[20] and have had accumulated 500,000 credits through their own auctions in the previous month. The user's payment is handled through PayPal. As of January 2018 Listia announced it would use the rate of 27,500 credits = $1.[21]

XNK (cryptocurrency)

On February 28 Lisita added a new currency to their marketplace [22] which was developed by the team and advisors.[23] The currency uses the Ethereum blockchain and can be used in and outside of Listia. A total of 500 Million XNK was created, 6% reserved for existing Listia users, 30% sold via private presale, and two public capped presales, 32% retained by Listia, vested over 3 years, 32% allocated for distribution and incentivizing the network, released over 3 years.[24] The presale token sale occurred January 22, 2018 funding 15 million dollars with a n ICO price of 14 cents for 1 XNK.[21] As of October 2018 the price of XNK is 1.6 cents per XNK, a decline of 88.5% value.[citation needed]

Concerns[]

Fraud

Listia uses a third party which uses large-scale machine learning to automatically discover new fraud patterns. These patterns are found by checking particular page navigation sequences, IP ranges, email address patterns, graph connectivity structures, browser configurations, and various others. An example Sift Science gives is that a user who signs up and waits an hour before making a purchase is 7x more likely to generate a chargeback than a user who makes a purchase immediately after signup.[25]

Terms of Service

Listia has been known to update their terms of service (ToS) without notifying their users of the changes.[citation needed] Comparing the text from the ToS from August 9, 2009[26] to the current text displayed on the site using text-compare.com there are multiple instances of changes, some favorable to the company and others to the consumer. Per Douglas v. U.S. Dist. Court a company must notify their users when the site decides to update their Terms of Service otherwise the new contract cannot be enforced.[27]

Listia App

A 2017 update to the Listia app requires auction winners to take an extra step by agreeing to transfer credits. Without that extra step, auctions cannot proceed.[citation needed]

Investigations[]

Listia agreed to pay $190,546 in back wages and damages to 61 current and former employees after the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor conducted an investigation. The company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime, minimum wage, and record-keeping provisions. Customer service employees were not paid overtime for hours worked beyond 40 in a week and in cases minimum wage. Listia also misclassified some employees as exempt from overtime pay and considered others as volunteers. The volunteers were not paid only given credits towards purchases on the company's website.[28]

References[]

  1. ^ "General Catalyst Partners".
  2. ^ "geechuang". LinkedIn.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Michael Arrington (2009-08-05). "Listia Is An Awesome Way To Give And Get Free Stuff".
  4. ^ "2009 July – The Listia Blog".
  5. ^ "Listia Official Launch". The Listia Blog. 6 August 2009.
  6. ^ Heater, Brian (2010-08-16). "The Top 100 Web Sites of 2010". PC Magazine.
  7. ^ "Pando: Listia Reaches 1 Million Users, Launches Android App". Pando. February 2012.
  8. ^ "Give Away Old Stuff, Get New Stuff: Listia Opens A Rewards Store". TechCrunch. AOL. 18 July 2012.
  9. ^ Andrea Huspeni (18 July 2012). "Listia Just Announced a Loyalty Program for Your Unwanted Goods". Business Insider.
  10. ^ "Listia Gets An Angel Round To Help People Give/Get Free Stuff". TechCrunch. AOL. 13 October 2009.
  11. ^ Leena Rao (2011-04-19). "Andreessen Horowitz Leads $1.75M Round In Freebie Marketplace Listia".
  12. ^ "Listia, A Used Goods Marketplace, Raises $9M To Attack Mobile". TechCrunch. AOL. 2 October 2013.
  13. ^ "Listia Partners With Best Buy to Power Their Trading Marketplace". Archived from the original on 2014-05-25.
  14. ^ "What does the Walmart logo mean on an auction in the Rewards Store?". Listia Help Center.
  15. ^ "Give & Get Free Stuff – Listia.com Auctions for Free Stuff".
  16. ^ "Turn Your Unwanted Stuff Into Charitable Donations". The Listia Blog. 12 December 2011.
  17. ^ Ben Parr (2009-08-19). "Listia Is eBay, But for Free Stuff".
  18. ^ "RCW 19.230.010: Definitions".
  19. ^ "How do I get more credits?". Listia Help Center.
  20. ^ "The Listia Badges".
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b "How Much is 1 XNK Worth?". Listia Help Center. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  22. ^ "Ink (XNK) is coming to Listia on February 28th!". The Listia Blog. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  23. ^ "Ink Protocol (XNK)". Ink Protocol (XNK). Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  24. ^ "Ink Protocol Whitepage" (PDF).
  25. ^ "Announcing Sift Science: fight fraud with large-scale machine learning". Sift Science Blog. 19 March 2013.
  26. ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Cite uses generic title (help)
  27. ^ "DOUGLAS v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA". Findlaw.
  28. ^ "The DOL Newsletter – May 15, 2014: Supporting Working Families; Honoring Chinese Railroad Workers; Boosting Innovation".

External links[]

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