Ebay Essay

Consider eBay. It employees are not paid to post items for sale and bid on other items. Instead, eBay has created a marketplace for people like you and me. You find value there because, perhaps, you can buy the books you need for school or get a good deal on an MP3 player. The sellers of those items find value on eBay because people like you buy their products.

Crowdsourcing is not limited to only the Internet. Think about the show American Idol. It uses a variant of Crowdsourcing called contribution-defined. Millions of viewers cast their votes for the best musician. Think carefully here. If millions of people vote for the top musician, don't you think that a record album by that musician will sell really well? Of course, and that is exactly what recording studios are hoping to find. And better yet, they are getting market data (i.e., the millions of votes) for free.

do you have an entrepreneurial spirit but do not have the money or resources to launch your own business? Think about using Crowdsourcing. Crowds of unpaid people could help you design your product or marketing brochures. Better yet, you could build a community like MySpce or Flickr and simply let crowds of people post some sort of content for you. If the content has value, other people will visit your site and soon you will be selling your company for upwards of a half-billion dollars. (MySpace sold for %580 million)

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