EVER experienced going from one house to another, or from one office to another, just to offer whatever item you want to sell? Wouldn't it be good if you will be able to sell your wares with just a click?
Davaosale.com brains Hermes Diomela, Mark Wendel dela Cruz, and Valentine Apostol encountered the same trouble back in their college days at the Ateneo de Davao University that prompted them to think of a solution.
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The three are best of friends in college and were all working as student assistants. Being chat addicts, they are not new to the power of the Internet in bringing messages across continents. They first tapped MiRC chat as a venue for them to go into buy-and-sell.
"Pero ang problema namin is madali mawala yung posts namin sa MiRC. Kaya we thought of another way to post our products. We came across the software PHPBB. Ito yung ginamit naming sa pag-create ng gaming website na davaosale.com," Diomela said.
Each of the three invested P700 for them to be able to buy an Internet domain worth P600 and fee for a one-year hosting worth P1,400. Davaosale.com was officially launched on March 15, 2004.
Diomela said they started inviting their chatmates and friends to visit their website, www.davaosale.com, and slowly they gained followers.
One year after their launch, davaosale.com averages at least 5,000 hits per day or 150,000 per month.
Diomela said that from the hits, they are paid by Google for their use of the American company's Adsense software. They receive about P15,000 per month from Google for using Adsense in their website.
Davaosale also earns from the premium membership fees of P500 per year. He said premium members of their website are given the priority to post their products on the website.
Majority of their income are, however, generated from banner ads. They charge monthly fee for the banner ads. Though refusing to divulge how much they averagely earn from the website, Diomela said it is just enough for them to live a decent life.
A visit at the website showed that there are a number of categories for viewers to select to depending on the items they are wanting to buy or sell. The categories range from automobile, agriculture, apartments, beauty and fragrances, books, magazines, cameras, computers and its accessories, clothing, gift items, food and wine, game consoles, health and fitness, jewelries, medical equipments, pets, toys and even human services.
Diomela said the items banned from their website are sex services, drugs, and fake items. He admitted though that some customers were still able to post fake items for sale in their website.
Website moderators are however at hand to address and delete posting of banned items.
Here's the complete list of their prohibited items:
1. Any item that is harmful to minors, obscene or otherwise objectionable.
2. Sales or promotion of certain weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles.
3. Explosive device.
4. Cigarettes.
5. Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
6. Prescription drugs.
7. Unauthorized copies of software, music, video games, photos or other media.
8. Stolen items.
9. Endangered animals.
10. Any items used for hacking.
11. Bodies, body parts, bodily fluids.
12. Fake ID's.
13. Gambling or casino-related content.
14. Any form of prostitution, pornography, adult, or mature content.
15. Items that will aid in theft or violence.
16. Any other content that promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others
17. Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol.
18. Sales or promotion of tobacco or tobacco-related products.
19. Sales or promotion of prescription drugs
20. Sales or promotion of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods.
21. Sale of smuggled goods.
In some instances, there are customers who complain of being victimized by "scammers" who posted their wares at Davaosale.
Diomela said they usually monitor customers who are being complained about and if there is enough ground to the complaints, they are banned from the website.
Diomela, however, clarified that they are in no way involved in the transactions between Davaosale customers, thus they are not liable for anything. A disclaimer posted at their website states such.
Davaosale mostly cater to the 18-27 age brackets and middle-income earners and students.
So what's next for Davaosale? Diomela said they are planning to create another website that would cater to jobseekers and companies looking for workers. He however did not give details since they are still planning it out.
Davaosale is also printing a monthly magazine that they give to their "offline" customers. In the magazine are found the different items that being posted at the website. The magazine is by the way for free.
Diomela said many of their customers give good feedbacks and are thankful that Davaosale helped them find a safer and faster venue to sell their products. All for free, well mostly. Talk about Dabawenyo style of selling. (BOT)
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