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Apply HN: ESOBO – Craiglist and Snapchat , Marries Uber

4 points by v3ss0n ↗ HN
Problem : In developing countries like Myanmar and many South east Asian countries , it is hard to find shops due to poorly defined addresses . 40% of Online stores in Myanmar loses sales because the delivery person can't find address of the customer . Customers also find it hard to navigate to online stores's physical locations .

Solution : GPS Powered map-based , C2C , Real-time , Buy , Sell and Delivery platform .

- Sellers can take a snapshot of what they want to sell or advertise . It appears instantly on the map in real time .

- Buyers can discover items nearby.

- Existing shop owners can post store catalog on the map (Premium )

- Advertisers can put ads on the most crowded places (Premium ) .

- Buyers and Seller can negotiate and make deals using built-in chat , which helps easy meet ups .

Website is at : http://esobo.co

Android prototype is avaliable at : http://esobo.co/contents/uploads/ESOBO.ME.APK

8 comments

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ryporter
First of all, while I understand that English may not be your first language, you're going to have to improve your grammar before investors will take you seriously. You post is riddled with errors in punctuation, spacing, and capitalization.

To address the content of your pitch, I don't see how your service a good solution to the problem of poor online maps. The problem of not being able to navigate to addresses sounds like a great opportunity for a better standalone mapping service.

How are you able to provide better navigation than Google Maps? Presumably you're using something like GPS in place of a street address, but a business could also distribute that to their customers via their website, which could then be used with services like Google Maps.

v3ss0n
Thank you very much for reviewing. Sorry for grammar and punctuation , I posted it in a hurry. I am editing it back now.

When deals are made , buyer and seller can see location of each other on the map , so it is easier to do deliveries and in-app chatting.

We are developing API so that existing online shops can post their items to our platform. We used OpenStreetMap . Our main focus is C2C marketplace on the map works in real-time. There is only Two , Main local e-commerce sites in Myanmar.

ryporter
It still sounds like it would be more promising to focus the business exclusively on providing a better mapping service. It's hard to build out all of the functionality for a marketplace (including dealing with very hard problems such as fraud), and then also to achieve the necessary network effects. It would be much simpler and more broadly commercializable to provide a better mapping/navigation service. As a potential investor, I would worry that you are trying to solve too many problems at once.
v3ss0n
I've editied for clearer reading and added more information. Thank you very much again @ryporter.
ryporter
Thank you for editing the post. One more grammar note -- there's no space before punctuation marks such as commas and periods.
brudgers
The strength of Craigslist is control and providing the total user experience. Craigslist converts the sale on its own.

Visiting the website, the first thing that came to mind is why limit the service to mobile apps?

Esobo's call to action is a link to another web site owned by another company. Onboarding the user is out of Esobo's control.

Craigslist does not require an app.

Good luck.

buss
I think your on-demand delivery to a GPS coordinate idea is the best part of this!

I'm not saying don't do the marketplace thing, but if "40% of Online stores in Myanmar loses sales because the delivery person can't find address of the customer" is true, then you have found an amazing market to tap.

Are you based in Myanmar? Can you describe what it's like trying to get something delivered?

Is this a mapping problem, or a city organization/government problem? How many streets are missing from maps? If OpenStreetMap or Google decided to improve the maps would the on-demand delivery market still exist?

Here's what I'm picturing: A retailer has their normal store, either with WhatsApp, Facebook, or maybe even with you. They include a button that says "Buy with Esobo" which kicks the user into your app. The user gives you their payment information and when they click "confirm" your app records their current location (or desired location and time in the future) and notifies the drivers who have signed up to deliver packages. A driver clicks "confirm", drives to the store, picks up the package, and then drives to the user's location, shown as a point on a Map. You'll be relying on drivers' knowledge of the city for better navigation that you can get from the latest maps. You charge a little bit to pay the drivers, you keep a bit for yourself, the retailers are happy because they made a sale, and the users are happy because they got what they wanted for a small delivery fee.

I think this could be absolutely huge in countries without a strong centralized delivery infrastructure.