Many companies have tried–and failed–to take on the might of Craigslist, which remains incredibly popular (and proves quite useful) despite its jumble of blue links and anti-design aesthetic. A new company, EggCartel, has released a product that just might have a chance of winning some market share in the neighborhood marketplace arena.
EggDrop is an elegant, visually-driven Craigslist-type app for the mobile space (it launched for iPhone on Tuesday and Android devices yesterday), with a simple interface for uploading items for sale. Snap a pic, set a price, maybe add a few details and EggDrop categorizes the item and lists it in location-based directory.
Ah, yes, location: EggDrop differs from Craigslist in various ways, not least of which is the fact that shipping items is forbidden. All purchases are meant to be local; EggDrop lets you know only of the items that are in your area, and the app takes no part in the sale process–that’s left up to the buyer and seller, with an eBay-like reputation rating system in place to let users know who’s on the up-and-up. EggCartel can’t take a fee when it’s not part of the sale process, obviously, so the company plans to make money on the app by eventually rolling out premium services, though those are still a ways off. Good thing, then, that EggCartel just closed a $1 million round of seed financing by the likes of SV Angel and BlueRun Ventures.
Read more at TechCrunch.
