July 20th Puget Sound Business Journal

July 20th, 2007
Two Seattle area startups are trying to carve out little chunks of the
huge online markets dominated by Craigslist and eBay.

InCampus, started by a Minnesota State University student, is aimed at
college kids trying to unload textbooks, concert tickets, cars - even a
bocce set - online.

CozyBug.com deals in bulky, hard-to-ship items and bills itself as "a
website you can show your mother with a wholesome approach to buying and
selling locally."

How can two self-funded startups take on the giant classified and auction
sites Craigslist and eBay?

"I don't want to compete with them. I'd be happy to be No. 3," said
CozyBug founder David Cantu.

Though they can't be as big, these niche startups have a shot at finding
small but significant markets, said Sucharita Mulpuru, a senior
analyst at
Forrester Research, a technology market research firm in Cambridge, Mass.

"EBay is such a behemoth online. Any traffic relative to eBay is going to
be meaningless," said Mulpuru, who specializes in e-commerce. "But it
doesn't mean you can't create your own decent, profitable community."

InCampus launched its site July 10 and sets up an online marketplace for
individual university and college campuses. The company is
student-centric, with items that appeal specifically to college-age
buyers.

Among the listings for the University of Washington, Seattle campus,
are a
bocce set ($45), a human anatomy textbook ($75 - negotiable), and a 2001
Subaru Outback ($15,000).

InCampus faces stiff competition from Craigslist and eBay as well as the
popular social networking site Facebook, which recently launched its own
classifieds feature.

Saqib Rasool, chairman of InCampus, admitted that taking on the better
established sites is "definitely a challenge" and said the company is
mulling how to get noticed on campuses. One idea is to spread the word
via
student interns.

"This year is our year to try what works," he said Saqib Rasool's
brother,
Aqib, was the Minnesota student who developed the InCampus concept.

CozyBug.com launched May 8 and seeks to create a kind of localized site
"for people who want to look, see, and touch the item that they're
buying," said Cantu.

The Issaquah-based startup charges $1 to list items and $2 for a
"premium"
listing with additional photos. Users can pay $5 to set up an online
storefront on CozyBug, as well as $1-$2 for ads on the site.

CozyBug also provides a feature called SwapSpots - third party locations
such as retail parking lots where people can view and buy items. The
SwapSpots are meant for people who want to sell stuff but don't want
unfamiliar people coming to their home - "30-something moms who want to
get rid of their stroller and are scared of using Craigslist," Cantu
said.

CozyBug is taking on Craigslist and eBay as well as sites like LiveDeal
that offer similar localized classified ads.

But so far, usage of CozyBug appears limited. A recent check of the site
revealed just 18 items listed in Bellevue/Eastside and a mere two items
listed in Seattle.

EBay acquired a nearly 25 percent stake in Craigslist, the popular,
bare-bones classifieds site, in 2004. Earlier this month, eBay launched
its own classifieds site, Kijiji.

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