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I belong to a local Muslim Chamber of Commerce that is basically this. Every business that wants to be a part of the network pays a membership fee (like $300 a
by abustamam 1y ago
I belong to a local Muslim Chamber of Commerce that is basically this. Every business that wants to be a part of the network pays a membership fee (like $300 a year) and gets put into a directory. We have Muslim plumbers, contractors, real estate agents, etc.
I think such things can only work at small scales. Once there are too many competing interests it's not as effective.
- AnthonyMouse 1y agoI feel like you're just describing a different form of advertising (pay $300 to be listed in the directory) rather than an alternative to it. In general it seems like the problem is that a marketplace has a network effect. The sellers go where the buyers are and the buyers go where the sellers are. And then the marketplace gets captured by the likes of Google or Facebook who, instead of showing results based on reviews or customer ratings or some other kind of useful curation that allows high quality providers to rise to the top even if they're small, just sell the top slot to whoever bids the most.
- abustamam 1y agoPerhaps, but the difference between what the comment I was replying to and the Chamber is just the membership fee. Maybe that's just what distinguishes advertising from organic networks. Yelp used to be pretty good until it started putting ads pretty much everywhere. I'd see reviews for a totally different restaurant when looking at one restaurant.
- 542354234235 1y agoI think one of the big differences is charging enough to maintain the network and charging to extract as much money as possible.
- abustamam 1y agoThat's a good point. At some point the fee to play becomes exorbitant (or some might say, extortion).