Trade Me is New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds website. Managed by Trade Me Ltd., the site was founded in 1999 by New Zealand

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

Sam Morgan, who sold it to Fairfax in 2006 for NZ$700 million. Trade Me was publicly listed as a separate entity on 13 December 2011 under the ticker "TME". In May 2019, Trade Me was acquired by private equity firm

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

for NZ$2.56 billion. Trade Me Ltd also operates several sister websites including FindSomeone and Holiday Houses. , Trade Me's website was the fifth most visited in New Zealand and was ranked 2,711th globally according to

Alexa Internet Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon. Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock. ...

. In a country with a population of million, the Trade Me site has, , 5 million active members. , an average of 690,000 people visit the site each day. Participating traders primarily use New Zealand's banking system to settle payments, although Trade Me offers sellers the ability to accept credit card payments via Trade Me's own instant payment service, 'Ping' (formerly 'Pay Now'). Australian sellers must have a New Zealand bank account, while sellers from other countries are not allowed on the site without special approval. Trade Me shares many features with other online auction websites, such as

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. Some of these features include "Buy Now" and "Auto bidding". Sellers may choose to block the large proportion of members not "authenticated" from bidding. Only "authenticated" members can ask sellers questions. Members can become "authenticated" by using a credit/debit card on-site or depositing some money in their Trade Me account. Only one membership per private person is allowed. Membership is for life, is never deleted and will be only partially deactivated if a member "closes" their membership by giving three days notice in writing to Trade Me. Member profile, bidding history and "feedback received" pages are then hidden and can be reactivated by ex-members at a later date on request. All ex-members empty member "items for sale" pages and all the "feedback sent" posted on other members pages is not hidden.

History

Origins and early development

Sam Morgan founded Trade Me in 1999, constructing the site while working full-time for

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

as a technology consultant. Within Deloitte, Morgan worked on Internet projects and

supply-chain In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, activ ...

issues. During this time he witnessed the successes of online

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

es like eBay and

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

, as well as the disasters of the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

According to Trade Me legend, Morgan, then 23 years old, decided to found the Trade Me site when, despite searching online, he could not find a secondhand heater for his

flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. The

Trade & Exchange Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...

site had a heater for sale, but held back listings for a week before publishing them online, and by the time Morgan made contact with the heater's owner, the item in question had already sold. Morgan describes the initial designing and building of Trade Me thus:

"Some time later we were in a backpackers in Sydney and got evicted because it was overbooked. We went up to some backwater because it was the only accommodation we could find. Anyway, there was nothing to do, so that night I started drawing a data model. So it sort of started there really. Then when I came back to Wellington I literally sat on the couch and built the site on a laptop over a five- or six-week period."

The site went online in March 1999 after Morgan pulled together as much funding as he could. It gained 155 members in its first week on the Internet. In its early stages Morgan humorously listed Trade Me for sale on eBay with a $1 million buy-now price. Though eBay withdrew Morgan's auction, the prank sparked some interest among New Zealanders who realized the potential of online trading. Trade Me developed slowly initially, because its founder had little funding to pay for the costs of hosting and of expanding the site. In addition, Trade Me initially offered a completely free service for both buyers and sellers, a strategy for expanding its member base at the cost of short-term revenue. With little money and time available to work on the site, Morgan made the critical decision to sell almost half of his new company to his former Deloitte colleagues, bringing him around $75,000. By August 1999 membership had risen to 3500, and Morgan could dedicate most of his time and funding to the site. The early strategy for Trade Me involved simply increasing its user base and encouraging members to refer their friends to the site. Trade Me launched the Safe Trader

escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...

service about this time. For a snapshot of Trade Me's early development see the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

's Trade Me archive. The running

Kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also refe ...

in the Trade Me logo is named "Kevin" or "Kev" and his name can be seen by hovering over the site logo. Trade Me often change the logo and stylise Kevin to reflect major events in the calendar.

Growth and expansion

In its early years Trade Me continued to struggle, slowly increasing its user base, but facing financial challenges. The site initially used

web banner A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking ...

s, but falling prices for advertising made web-banner revenue insufficient to cover expenses. Trade Me then introduced fees for auction services: first for features such as bold titles; then in September 2000 it introduced "success fees". This action proved the turning point for Trade Me, saving the site from potential financial disaster. Much of the success to come was based around the 'Trade Me Manifesto', a series of ten values for keeping the site fast and the company technology focused.

tried to enter the New Zealand market in 2001, but had little success. Trade Me has remained the major Internet-auction site in New Zealand, with both international and smaller national competitors gaining relatively little market penetration. Morgan commented on eBay's attempt to penetrate the New Zealand market in an interview: : "...I think there are big cultural issues there that are just not well understood. For example the Americans think that everyone has a zip code ..they were a little late in and then they launched in US dollars." Morgan took time off from the

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

of running the booming Trade Me site in September 2001, and went to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to manage an IT

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. When he returned to his role at Trade Me the site had become profitable, with a membership of 100,000 and growing. By April 2005, this number reached one million. In August 2003, Trade Me went live with Trade Me Motors and Trade Me Property followed in 2005 along with Trade Me Jobs in 2006. New Zealand's Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 rated Trade Me the fastest-growing NZ technology company in 2005.

Acquisition by Fairfax

On 6 March 2006, the Australian media company Fairfax acquired Trade Me in a deal worth NZ$700 million, with an additional NZ$50 million payable if the organisation met earnings targets over the next two years. (Those targets were met.) Sam Morgan and other executives remained with Trade Me. Since the Fairfax purchase, Trade Me has continued to stand alone, with the former Fairfax NZ sites Jobstuff and Propertystuff being discontinued in favour of the Trade Me offerings. In December 2012, Fairfax announced it was looking to sell off its stake in Trade Me in order to pay off debts. The sale was confirmed on 17 December. Its first profit report following the sale beat expectations, at NZ$37.4 million in the second half of 2012.

Listings

Trade Me has increased its scope over time, and offers a wide range of listing possibilities. Customers can list the following items and positions on Trade Me: * General items * Motors: cars, motorbikes and boats * Property * Jobs * Rental property * Flatmates wanted * Antiques & Collectables * Pets And Animals

Community and related sites

Trade Me sites include: * Trade Me – the main Trade Me auction site
FindSomeone
– a matchmaking/dating site
Holiday Houses
– booking holiday homes/baches – rental accommodation
MotorWeb
– vehicle license plate lookup and basic facts site

Discontinued sites

* The

online map Web mapping or an online mapping is the process of using maps, usually created through Geographic Information Systems, geographic information systems (GIS), on the Internet, more specifically in the World Wide Web (WWW). A web map or an online ma ...

site smaps, which provided convenient access to New Zealand

street map A road map, route map, or street map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes political boundaries and labels, making it a ...

s, was permanently closed in December 2008, leaving the niche to sites like

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

* Old Friends – finding old school friends and workmates – discontinued in January 2016 * SafeTrader – escrow service for Trade Me auctions - discontinued in July 2017

Controversy

As a fairly open marketplace which is recognised globally, Trade Me experiences the same problems (such as fraudsters), and users need to exercise vigilance. In 2007, Trade Me set up a dedicated Trust & Safety team who monitor the site seven days a week to keep its members safe. "Members can report listings that may be in breach of the Terms and Conditions" via the "Community Watch" (CW) badge, sited at the bottom of every listing. Contact with staff can also be made via the
Contact Us
link at the bottom of every page. Social media can also be used to contact Trade Me. To minimise payment problems and reduce fraud, Trade Me restricted membership to residents of New Zealand and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2005. This affected around 20,000 international members. However, in September 2013 Trade Me announced that it had "opened up its borders" and now has "a few internationally based sellers trading on the site," but that "only international sellers who meet our requirements for selling from overseas are allowed to do so." Trade Me's terms and conditions restrict membership to persons over eighteen years of age, as any user under the age of eighteen can not negotiate a legally binding

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

. Prior to 2005 Trade Me did not restrict underage users, even allowing them to enter in their correct birthdates upon sign-up. In June 2005 ''

Fair Go ''Fair Go'' is a New Zealand consumer affairs television programme hosted by Pippa Wetzell and Hadyn Jones. First aired in 1977, it is New Zealand's second longest-running local programme (after '' Country Calendar''). It is also highest-rate ...

'', a television programme devoted to

consumer affairs Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

, approached Trade Me Limited regarding this issue and featured the matter on a broadcast episode. In response to this, Trade Me Limited sent all the users who registered their date of birth as under eighteen an e-mail asking them to check and update their details if incorrect. Trade Me no longer allows users to register if they enter a birth date indicating their age as under eighteen, but people under eighteen may simply represent themselves as older when they join.

Clashes with rivals

In 2006, Trade Me laid a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the advertising of its largest property market competitor
Realestate.co.nz
According to the complaint, Realestate.co.nz, (run jointly by th
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ)
and Property Page Ltd) had misled consumers with their advertisements with their slogan: "the only place with every place". Trade Me stated that it had properties listed on the Trade Me website that Realestate.co.nz did not have. Trade Me also detailed other reasons why Realestate.co.nz had allegedly breached the ASA's code of ethics and comparative advertising. The ASA upheld parts of the complaint. On 6 November 2008,

Lixtor Lixtor is an internet auction website operating in New Zealand since 2005, as a free alternative to Trade Me or Facebook Marketplace. Lixtor's business model is substantially different from its rival site Trade Me as it tries to operate its busi ...

accused Trade Me of using bullying tactics. Trade Me said Lixtor was just trying to draw media attention. On 20 November 2008, a community newspaper ''

The Aucklander New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the formal merger of the New Zealand division of APN News & Media, APN New Zealand; The Radio Netw ...

'' also reported that Trade Me's lawyers asked Lixtor to remove their "Terms and Conditions"The Aucklander
- ''Newbie takes on Trade Me'' On 3 February 2009, in the wake of the emerging New Zealand copyright law Section 92a,

New Zealand Creative Freedom Foundation New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

published an article. It was stated that Lixtor vs. Trade Me case is a good example of how the new section 92a in the New Zealand copyright law could be "misused" if passed. TradeMe is also facing more competition from new startups lik
MyMansion.co.nz
who offer free real estate listings.

Clashes with software developers

Various software developers have received legal threats after developing third-party software which interfaces with the Trade Me website. On 19 August 2006 the ''

New Zealand Listener The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, f ...

'' published an article, "Bidding War"''The New Zealand Listener''
- ''Bidding War'' on one such developer. The developer, Ciaran Riddell, created a piece of software, AuctionBar, which used a technique known as

screen scraping Data scraping is a technique where a computer program extracts data from human-readable output coming from another program. Description Normally, data transfer between programs is accomplished using data structures suited for automated processin ...

. The software allowed for more detailed searches for goods on sale as well as bids and updates via text-messaging and a tool known as a "sniper", which acted as an automated bidding tool. Trade Me have since amended the "Terms and Conditions" of the Trade Me website which now specifies "You may not use a robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Website or information featured on it for any purpose" under s4.1(c). On 7 May 2007, Trade Me released a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget to run in the

Windows Sidebar Windows Desktop Gadgets (called Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista) is a discontinued widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets. Desktop Gadgets have been replaced by Windows 10 Taskbar Widgets. It was introduced with Windows Vista, in which it features ...

. This gadget, available on the Trade Me site, became the first sanctioned application to work with Trade Me. As the Vista Gadget requires an XML Feed, the gadget caused further discussion in the developer community about why TradeMe did not have an API. It also led to other creations by the developer community on top of Vista Gadget. Trade Me has now released an official API.

Notable auctions

Most popular auctions

As of July 2013, the most popular auctions were as follows:

Other popular auctions

* A "comfort hug", auctioned in April 2005 to promote love and good feelings. The auction received considerable media attention. * In late 2005, a member offered a "time machine" for sale through auction (or swap for an "anti gravity machine"), with the highest bid reaching $300,000,000,001,999. The seller withdrew the auction shortly before its close time. News of the auction reached some New Zealand newspapers, which ran a story on it. This auction used to hold the record for the highest number of questions asked and answered.But on 24 May 2009, Allan and Shelly Holland from Gore, New Zealand smashed it. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=218710429
Trade Me Auction 36725938
/ref> * In 2006 a user attempted to auction the Optus B1 satellite following a malfunction. The opening price started at NZ$200,000,000. Trade Me withdrew the auction after 231,908-page views. * In May 2006 a member tried to sell

, using humorous descriptions of the country. The auction drew over 100 questions, and had more than 11,000 views. The country achieved a bid of $200,045,400, with a reserve price of 50 cents. In the end however, Trade Me

administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

withdrew the auction. '' One News'' (a broadcast television programme) ran a report on this auction. * Also in May 2006 a member tried to sell his leg – amputated a year earlier as a result of

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

.Trade Me Auction 57001645
/ref> Trade Me withdrew the auction within hours and swiftly added "Body Parts" to the "Prohibited Items" list. * In June 2006 Lisa Lewis streaked across the field at the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

game against Ireland held at

Waikato Stadium FMG Stadium Waikato is a major sporting and cultural events venue in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a total capacity of 25,800. Four areas contribute to this capacity: The Brian Perry Stand holding 12,000, the WEL Networks Stand holding 8,000, the ...

. Days later the bikini Lewis had worn ended up for auction. The winning bid of $4,010 later proved not genuine * In October 2007 Lisa-Marie Corlet stumbled across a pebble with markings allegedly resembling the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

. A first auction completed, but the bids later proved invalid. Corlet went on a nationwide television programme, ''

Campbell Live ''Campbell Live'' is a half-hour-long New Zealand current affairs programme that aired at 7pm (following 3 News) on TV3 and was hosted by John Campbell. ''Campbell Live'' conducted interviews of various notable personalities, including Al Go ...

'', to announce she would not accept anything less than

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New Zea ...

78,662,500,000 as she believes that someone would very much treasure the item. She said she was non-religious and offered this as the reason why she chose to on-sell the pebble. It was one of the most highly viewed auctions on Trade Me, with over 100,000 views, but the pebble failed to sell. * On 17 November 2008

attempted to auction their auction site following dispute with Trade Me over copyright-infringement allegations.''Trade Me - "Lixtor.co.nz FOR SALE starting bid $100,000,000 (Google Cache)" ''
/ref> The opening price started at NZ$100,000,000. Trade Me withdrew the auction after a few hours.Lixtor.co.nz FOR SALE starting bid $100,000,000
/ref> * February 2010: The Trade Me use
rhorne
listed a

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

; with the letters "XT" printed vividly upon it; for sale with a humorous description. This was designed to mock the

XT Mobile Network The XT Mobile Network is a UMTS and LTE mobile network run by Spark New Zealand (formerly Telecom New Zealand). The network was initially built nationwide on WCDMA/UMTS 850 MHz, with 2100 MHz infill in major urban areas. The UMTS netw ...

due to its intermittent outages (which caused significant inconvenience to customers and delayed emergency service responses) and other flaws. There were some suggestions made on the auction that the proceeds should be donated to charity, however the seller made it clear that was not his intention. The auction sold for $1,155. * In February 2012, Labour MP

Trevor Mallard Trevor Colin Mallard (born 17 June 1954) is a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party. First elected to Parliament in 1984, he was Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2017 until 2022. Mallard was a Cabinet m ...

was accused of ticket scalping on Trade Me when he sold four tickets to the Homegrown music festival for a $246 profit. The MP had in 2006 initiated legislation, the Major Events Management Act 2007, prohibiting ticket scalping for major events (although Homegrown wasn't classified as a "major event" so wasn't covered). He later offered to refund the money he received for the tickets. *In 2019, one of the last single-use plastic bags from Pak n' Save was sold just before the law changed to ban them. The auction had considerable media attention and was the fourth most viewed listing of the year, selling for $52. *A bag of Covid-free air was the most viewed auction of 2020. The seller listed the bag to commemorate a negative Covid test during the pandemic. The listing fetched 210,086 views. Note: Withdrawn auctions become unviewable after 60 days and bid histories after 45.

Notable people

* Sam Morgan, founder * Gareth Morgan, investor

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trademe Online auction websites of New Zealand Internet properties established in 1999 Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Companies listed on the New Zealand Exchange 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2011 initial public offerings 2019 mergers and acquisitions Fairfax Media Apax Partners companies New Zealand companies established in 1999 Animal trade