Mmatcher is one of 65 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2010 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.
Fifteen years after Craigslist brought classified ads online, Slovenian entrepreneur Robert Farazin is launching Mmatcher, a service aimed making the ads "mobile, spam protected, personal and real-time matched," he told me via email.
The number of online adults who have used Internet classified ads has more than doubled in the past four years, according to Pew Internet Research. eBay estimates that $22 billion worth of goods and services will be sold via classifieds in 2010.
Mmatcher will attempt to match buyers and sellers who are looking to connect, but don't have time to pore through ads manually until they find each other.
Farazin's favorite example goes like this: "Mark wants to sell his bike and Jenny, who lives three streets away wants to buy a bike. They can start messaging instantly."
Mmatcher will also build up reputations for members who use the service a lot. An English tutor, for example, could stand out by building a reputational profile on Mmatcher, where future potential students would be connected to him.
Farazin's current business model for America includes both free and paid options, a mixture known as "freemium," where the free options build a base of users, some of whom will become paying customers. You can use ad-supported Mmatcher for free, but you'll need to buy a monthly subscription to build your reputation. Small businesses will be able to buy a package tailored toward building an online presence as a retailer or service provider, complete with analytics tools to track potential buyers' interest.
Mmatcher's business model will vary by market. For example, in Asia and the Middle East, "we will make partnerships and revenue-sharing [deals] with mobile operators, because this is the fastest way to get users and also charge them," said Farazin. "They are used to paying for services on a mobile phone."
Mmatcher is privately funded.