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The Power of the Internet to Create Low Friction Marketplaces

 

apples photo
Photo by Royalty-free image collection

RipeNearMe is an online marketplace for locally grown food.

Ever had a peach, apple or lemon tree go bananas with a bumper crop and not know what to do with it? Or maybe you’ve seen your neighbours’ trees overloaded, left to the birds, falling to the floor and going to waste? We have too, and that’s why we started RipeNearMe: a web app that connects people through the food we each grow ourselves.

As we near the end of harvest season here in Colorado, it is great to see this kind of marketplace for free or low cost food.  Maybe the bags of zucchini at the office are on their way out?

Regardless, it would be impossible to have this kind of market if the internet (and specifically the HTTP protocol) wasn’t powering it.  The transaction costs are simply too high and the value of the goods too low.

Any other examples of low friction marketplaces that the internet enables?