Loading ...Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures with an interesting take on Superdistribution - the practice of turning each consumer into a retailer of the good in question.
[…] superdistribution is something I’ve become obsessed with. Superdistribution means turning every consumer into a distribution partner. Every person who buys a record, a movie, reads a newspaper, a book, every person who buys a Sonos or a Vespa becomes a retailer of that item. It’s word of mouth marketing, referral marketing, but with one important difference. The consumer is the retailer.
I’ve wanted to be a superdistributor ever since. When I talk about music, books, politics, Sonos, Blackberry, MacBook, or anything else, I want all of you to be able to click and buy. When I buy something, I want to be able to pass it along to everyone else and get paid for doing that. And I want the people who created the thing I pass along to get paid too.
A lot of people who read and comment on this blog think I am anti content creator, that I want to eliminate property rights. Wrong. The thing I want to eliminate is FRICTION. I want to supercharge commerce. I want to turn everyone on to Arcade FIre. I want to them to sell 100 million Arcade Fire mp3s. And I want to get paid for doing my part.
My friend Steve calls me anti establishment. He’s right. I am done with the old way of selling goods. I don’t want to buy from an institution. I want to buy from my friends. And I want to sell to them.
I believe Mahamaza (www.mahamaza.com) has a similar business model.
I have a very high regard for Fred and his thoughts. This time around I am not able to get right behind him though.
Direct sales as a concept has been successful in certain segments. But Multi Level Marketing (MLM - the Amway / Japan Life types ) have had their share of controversies, why even a few lawsuits on the legitimacy of their business model. Japan Life had since run aground ( Rs.80,000/- for a mattress that is supposed to relieve you off all afflictions, the cost savings on medical expenses being the bait ) and its Indian partners have been arrested.
I checked out Mahamaza. Even they are not transparent regarding what products are on offer and at what price levels.
Signs of another bubble, perhaps ?
Hi,
In my opinion doesn’t it limit somebody’s choices.? After all you can only have a limited number of friends who can have a limited number of products to offer.?
How about adding social networking to this? I only buy from my friend or from people my trusted friends have bought from. Any thoughts?
Mohit,
Think bigger. Potentially, this gets bigger and bigger. You have friends and you have friends’ friends. And somebody will recommend something that you are looking to buy, and you will trust that opinion more than a general brand sales pitch.
At least potentially. A kind of ebay movement, which has take the trusted-person-to-trusted-person to such a large level. The superdistribution concept needs to be thought through at a deeper level, but from a macro perspective, it CAN happen. Perhaps even a mouthshut.com could extend its model to this, since it already features reviews and the like.
Hi,
But aint it happening at some level already. I mean we hear all kinds of sales pitch and advertisements and what not. But we do discuss with our friends, family and they tell us what they bought,what they like and stuff.
Mohit,
That IS the point. We are already doing this. Now we make some money while doing so. At least that appears to be the concept! As conveyed earlier, the chaps doing this business model, must surely think through the detailing and the execution, but conceptually, this is how it would work, as far as I can see it.
Just came across this topic…
I am probably being a little dense here but how is this different from the model that Amway follows?