Bbay Story on Kuensel K2 Mag

K2 Magazine Cover

BBay Story

Thank you Thinley Zangmo and K2 for publishing bBay story.

bBay Imitations

A Blogger buddy, @Thimphutech sent me a tweet:

"@PaSsu_Diary, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Check out the 'Bbay' page on Facebook.(link removed)"

I wasn't even curious to check out because I have already seen several imitations of my Facebook Group 'B-Bay Buying and Selling Second Hand Stuffs in Bhutan', but that tweet actually made me feel good. It indicates that I should be proud that people are imitating my work. And I did.

The Top is mine: Rest are imitations. 

But sometime ago I was upset at people who ran out of basic creativity and resorted to cheapest means by imitating. I even wrote to someone who not only imitated my group (except with typo) but also campaigned against my group policies. He copied my group to counter mine, because he was removed from the group after coming into conflict with our policy. I regretted having written to him.

The copyright issue is out of question but the question is about ethics and self respect. Facebook is a free platform and English is full of words yet some people cannot come up with something of their own. I adopted the word 'bBay' from 'eBay' and I acknowledged that it was inspired by eBay.

They think the magic is in the word 'BBay' but the real success comes from cleaning the Group Wall of spams, non-sense, and irrelevant items on everyday. We also filter members and accept only Bhutanese or foreigners living in Bhutan. We also filter abusive Bhutanese members, and also brokers. If we have allowed every request we would have over 40,000 members by now but we wanted the group to be useful to Bhutanese. I have employed my family to look after it and take the group seriously. That's the secret behind the success of the group. If someone else it willing to provide this service so sincerely I am willing to give up but I doubt anybody would commit so much time. They only see the finished work and not the effort that went into it.

I hereby declare that you are free to imitate bBay, but I request you to imitate my commitment too.

Fish on bBay

I am pleased to see my bBay appearing in Kuensel's List of "Site You Could Use". But more than that, Gyalsten K Dorji must be applauded for bringing bright new change to boring Kuensel pages, in fact Kuensel could build on this idea and make a list of their own like the famous Forbes List.

I created bBay two years ago and it enjoyed publicity from Business Bhutan and Thimphutech.com besides my own blog. Today it's one of the most active groups on Facebook where the following happens (from Kuensel)

"If you are looking to buy or sell something, the most active place to do this today is on Facebook. Named after ebay, the popular online auction and shopping website, a page named B-Bay currently has almost 14,000 members using the page to find buyers for their second hand items, or to find something they want. A wide range of items, like apartments, land, vehicles, electronics, jewellery, shops, and even doma can be found being marketed on the Facebook page. The page also provides for some entertaining exchanges between buyers and sellers. Since the page is hosted on Facebook, posts are free."

Page 13- Kuensel

I must thank my dear friend, idea box and brilliant businessman, Tshering Tenzin who helped grow bBay to the size it has today. Right from the beginning we made it clear to ourselves that bBay will help people from being bullied by brokers, which is why we have banned over hundred brokers till date. We, including my wife and brother, monitor bBay everyday to keep the wall free from spams, jokes, harassment, and brokers. We only earn a few Nu. from the Ads we post on cover and in pinned section, which is at times questioned.

What is the Fish on bBay?
However, recently I visited a big office where I met two smart guys who were upset with me. They confessed to me that they were among the brokers whom I have banned, but what they shared after that upset me. After they were banned they have fooled us by joining with new account and remained ideal to escape out censorship. But what they enjoyed was full access to what our members post and they were the active buyers. They buy from our members and sell offline. To shock me even more they say they have done two to five deals each week. Sometime they see their sold cars coming back on bBay, which happens because there are many more hidden brokers on bBay. They promised to give me a list of all the brokers they know on bBay so that I can make it a clean place I had hoped for. So my dear member on bBay, I must admit to you all that there are some fishes in the group, which is important for you to know, but as long as you are getting what you want for the price you agree they should be a problem.

Letter to my Class XI IT Students

Dear Kinley Dorji, Thinley Jamtsho, Pema Dorji, Tenzin Jamtsho, Nim Dorji, Tashi Dorji, Purni Maya, and Karma Dema, (See in picture)
I hope all eight of you received the message I passed around on 18 December. It was about your winter IT assignment. I wanted to meet you personally to discuss this topic for your winter assignment but by the time I knew some of you were long gone after taking your results.
The topic is not quite from your syllabus but by now you must have realized it too that your Computer Studies syllabus is highly traditional, and unsuitable for our age and time. Therefore, I want you to create a personal blog each and keep record of your winter activities in it. Your blog is the first thing I wish to see when you rejoin the school next year in XII.

Where is Pema Dorji? 2011 XI IT Students!

I don't know if you have read this news report: "Computer students unable to find jobs in Bhutan" in The Bhutanese newspaper last week(?) but I wasn't surprised at all. I only hope you are not discouraged.

to be continued still...

Bbay's week on Media

copied from ebay!

When I created Bbay I wasn't expecting magic, knowing there are lot other classifieds already online but soon I realized it could do magic since it was on a platform where everybody hangs out. For Bbay to be successful it must have hundreds of members and I had them soon. I waited for 500 members to kick start our business and it didn't take long before sale began. 
There were lots of things on sale and if wishes were horses I would have bought many of them. The iPad and SLR cameras made my heart beat the fastest. I have no intention and tech to track the sales but I am hopeful many deals must have been successful. 
Last week, Bbay enjoyed maximum Media coverage. Boaz Shmueli, co founder of Thimphutech.com mentioned "It is much harder to cheat on B-Bay..." and later Business Bhutan dedicated a full scale news article on Bbay. It has used the very motto of Bbay in the finishing line, " ... do some smart shopping."
I would like to thank everybody who believed in my crazy idea. I can only give you this platform for smart shopping. With Bbay, I hope nobody will land up receiving steel hammer. We will together educate people in reducing wastage of precious resources and still get what they want.
If you are not on Bbay yet, Join now!