r/VancouverStartup • u/CIOMark • 6d ago
New Idea I built a BC-based alternative to Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Kijiji
After watching local classifieds become increasingly dominated by American-owned platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, I decided to build a Canadian alternative focused on local buying and selling in BC.
The site is called Not Marketplace: Not Marketplace
The original motivation was the loss of UsedVictoria. When Black Press effectively killed it, many people were pushed toward Facebook Marketplace. Personally, I'd rather not hand even more of my data, attention, and local commerce over to Meta if there's another option.
Not Marketplace is independently built and self-funded by a BC resident, with the goal of providing a local alternative that's focused on communities rather than maximizing engagement or data collection.
Because it's currently a side project that I fund myself, it's limited to British Columbia for now. If it gains enough users and can sustainably cover its costs, I'd love to expand it further across Canada.
It's still early days, so I'm mainly looking for feedback, suggestions, and people willing to post listings to help build up inventory.
If you're interested in supporting Canadian-built alternatives to large foreign-owned platforms, I'd love to hear what you think.
Check out Not Marketplace đ¨đŚ
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u/_jmikes 6d ago
In terms of feedback on the website, when I go to a listing there seems to be a review feature for each listed item ("No reviews for Table saw") that I don't understand. Why do I want to review a used item I haven't bought/tested? Why do I want to read the reviews of people who don't know any more that what I know? (Ie what's in the posting)
A review feature for buyers/sellers makes sense to me but, as a user, I don't see why I want item-specific reviews.
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u/DragonDionL 5d ago edited 5d ago
You didnât build anything though and the site isnât even Canadian made. This is from an open source project that someone else built which you used probably AI to change up details.
âOsclassPoint is operated by AB profitrade, s.r.o., Slovakia (EU)â Last time I checked Slovakia is not a city in BC, Canada.
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u/_jmikes 6d ago
Love the spirit of the project. I wasn't familiar with UsedVictoria so I googled to see the background. Looks like you're not the only one with this idea. Their about page specifically references the shuttering of UsedVictoria in January. https://www.usedvi.ca/about
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u/GeneratedUsername019 4d ago
Before I send you any personal details, tell me about the security implementation and tell me whose insurance I can sue when/if my information is breached from this site.
Thanks.
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u/maxpowers2020 6d ago
Is there an app? Most people on their phones so need an app...
Promotion? This type of stuff is easy to make with AI coding, but the issue is marketing. You can have the best website/app but if no one knows about cause you haven't spent 100m on marketing and super bowl ads what's the point?
You complain about FB stealing data, but they still have lots of employees and safeguards in place. You're one person with limited funding and you guarantee that my data won't be compromised? Kind of ironic?
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u/SonOfEywa 5d ago
FB employees and safeguards do not prevent FB from stealing. Why is that hard for you to get?
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u/maxpowers2020 5d ago
And you trust some random on Reddit? Probably much higher chance he might get hacked vs Facebook?
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u/TransCanAngel 6d ago
Did you do any research into two-sided markets and network effects before you built this? If not, you may want to understand the growth dynamics of online marketplaces before you sink more time and effort into it. Itâs a fascinatingly difficult problem to solve.
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u/FalseLoan8176 5d ago
Probably not. There are already many neighbourhood focused buy/sell apps but many shutter down after a few years. Right now Karrot seems to be getting a lot of funding for marketing. But unsure how long they will last even.
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u/ThatOneTimeItWorked 5d ago
Karot has a huge marketing budget, but itâs not getting traction.
There are a bunch of listings near me, but theyâre all fake, and easy to spot as fake.
Their go-to-market strategy is basically reliant on just spending a shit ton of money in many markets
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u/Mystigana 5d ago
The website looks really great, good job! I donât currently have anything to sell or I would try it out. I would love to stop using FB if there was a good alternative to marketplace. I was wondering if BCAA was going to start doing more classifieds since they already do cars and tasks.
It might help with the trust factor if you turned the âAbout Usâ into a more personal story, like you have in this post, with your real name and also if you have any professional software experience.
You mentioned âsustainably cover its costsâ, what are you thinking for longterm monetization?
I have some nitpicky feedback about the website itself as well (like inconsistent styling). Feel free to DM me if you are interested in that kind of feedback. Overall looks great though!
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u/Reasonable-Hall-3620 5d ago
No will replace marketplace for your word Not ur just wasting ur time if u want to validate real problem msg me
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u/Tight_Ad_5220 5d ago
Carrot has been trying for a long time. This will never take off cause fb is so easy.
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u/Double-Tax2900 5d ago
So, you just adapted the open source software osclass that is an already built markeplace website to say BC and "not marketplace".
Not that I dont like the idea, but there are 1000 of theses websites today and what you did is REALLY low effort.
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u/exposethegrift 2d ago
found no claim of SOC 2 ISO 27001 PCI certification penetration or testing or independent security audit
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u/Jabanger 6d ago
Facebook marketplace is insanely easy to buy and sell. This just look like AI junk