Young parents are having a busy living. It is becoming more commonplace both the parents are making career, working hard, socialize with friends and of course going to the sports club 3 times a week. With such a busy schedule as parents, you need sometimes a babysitters for your kids. Most parents have their standard babysitting list, including the neighbors, their parents or that one good friend who is always there for you. However, there are always unexpected events upcoming, you don’t know beforehand. For instance, your wife is having a ladies night with the girls and suddenly your friend calls if you have the time to come over later that night for some important things. As usual you get the standard babysitting list, but unfortunately nobody is able to babysit that night for your kids because of the short term. Panic! Problem! What to do now? Get airBsit!

Continue reading Find babysitters recommended by your friends →

One of the most annoying things from my experience in the Netherlands is the lack of a centralized volunteering platform that lists all volunteering causes and initiatives on local or national levels. Therefore, if I wanted to volunteer, I would have to jump from one website to another, usually sending emails asking if the activities listed were still relevant, if there were any spots available and if Dutch was required. Needless to say, the process is very inefficient, therefore there is a need for a centralized, up-to-date platform that users can easily interact with in the search of volunteering opportunities.

Continue reading TimeHeroes- Efficient volunteering and value creation →

Introduction

Advertising media is an important factor for advertisers. There are several different media which will create different results for the potential customers. Theory describes five advertising media categories: magazine and newspaper, TV, radio, Internet, and mobile.

The more traditional forms of advertising media can only display the messages in text, pictures, or graphics (e.g. magazines, newspapers, etc.). Radio and TV are more dynamic, since they can also deliver voice messages and video advertising to customers. The largest problem with the first three categories (magazine and newspaper, TV, and radio) is that they cannot deliver personalized messages for different markets. The other two, internet and mobile, are able to deliver personalized messages. The benefit is that customers can now search for necessary advertising information. Especially the mobile category shows great potential because of the increasing mobile internet speed and the growing amount of time people spend on their smartphones. This paper will examine the key attributes, trends, and social impact of personalized mobile advertising.

Continue reading Personalized mobile advertising: Its key attributes, trends and social impact →

The concept of sharing economy has taken the world by storm, where the spare resource available from “amateurs” could be utilized for others for a small compensation. Vayable.com allows taking travelling new places to the next level by enabling the locals to share their expertise and knowledge with the travelers by providing an off-beat experience. Vayable.com provides a platform where the resource is the time and knowledge of the local knowledge holders, and the platform facilitates matching the tourists with the specific tours provided by those knowledge holders.

Continue reading Vayable: A Refreshing Way Of Experiencing A New Destination →

Ever tried to sell your car through an online marketplace such as Autoscout24, Speurders or Marktplaats? Well I did, and it turned out to be quite a hassle. People tend to bid but show not a single sign of interest after they placed their bid, they do not react on emails, or try to push the price way further down while they eventually show up (someone wanted me, almost pressing, to agree on almost half of the price we first agreed on). Not speaking of all “really interested” buyers who are in the delusion of being expert race drivers during test drives.

Continue reading Carsome, a platform for a smarter car buying & selling experience →

Last week, when it was cold and pouring outside, you know the typical Dutch weather, and my motivation to study reached once again a very low point, I decided to do what everyone in the Netherlands does at a time like this, start planning my next holiday.

As it was not sure that my friends would be able to join this summer, I went online and came across this platform called TravBuddy, which is a community for people who want to discover the world.

Continue reading Time for a trip! →

“Wow, this looks very good on you!” might the advice from the lady in the make-up store be. You spotted a beautiful lipstick in the store, but did not dare to buy the product without trying it. However, trying make-up takes a long time in the shop. Afterwards it  has to be removed, which also vanishes your other make-up. A lot of girls will recognize the frustrating situation.

However fitting clothes digitally has become known under the large audience, “fitting” make-up via online applications is relatively unkknown. The increasing possibilities with photographing and mobile phones allow make-up brands to create virtual applications for this. Some beauty applications use techniques technique that are comparable to facial recognition applications (used for security goals), which is not strange: the same technique is used in both branches (Gibb, 2013)

Continue reading Beauty Brands using Facial Recognition →

Peer-to-peer business models are rising as an important feature of the collaborative economy we are living in nowadays. According to Glind (2015), we are moving towards a situation where the majority of people uses online and offline marketplaces for economic transactions. People will get what they need from other individuals, because it is often faster and more convenient. An advantage of these marketplaces is that to avoid trust implications they are very transparent in their process and how they earn money.

Continue reading Peer-to-peer marketplace: 99 games – the game trading community →

The collaborative economy is becoming bigger and bigger, 51% of North-Americans have used a mobile app or website for a sharing service, and before 2018 over 80% is expected to be part of the collaborative economy characterized by sharing products and services.

The major reason behind this tremendous growth of the collaborative economy can be explained by the focus of these new companies; they truly understand what their customers want and why they want it. Disruptive start-ups enter the market and immediately change the rules of the game which is intimidating many large, established companies. All companies in the market have to adhere to the new rules or are doomed to disappear from existence, with the thought in mind that any new idea might pop-up to transform the rules again. This blogpost will provide traditional companies with strategies to remain competitive and relevant in markets disrupted by collaboration; by truly focusing on price, convenience and brand recognition.   

Continue reading How to survive in the big scary collaboration economy: Price, Convenience and Brand recognition →

How can companies interact successfully with consumers in online communities?

For a lot of people, if not all of us, our opinion depends on those in our social context. Whether unconsciously or not, we want our choices to reflect who we are and that we belong in a certain community with similar interests, preferences and beliefs (Churchill and Halverson, 2005; Miller, Fabian, and Lin, 2009; Swann, Rentfrow, and Guinn, 2002). Online communities are not necessarily different. Even though it can be anonymous and it is more accessible than face-to-face meetings, the opinions posted there can be equally or even more influential in the choices that you make. And people are spending an increasing amount of time online, so a lot of the opinions that our opinion is based on, are coming from online communities.

Continue reading Strategies for online communities →

Imagine you want to arrange live music for a wedding. First, you need to decide what kind of audience and what kind of music you want for the wedding. Thereafter, you will need to find and contact agents, and compare different quotes of bands and musicians to find your best options. As you can imagine, it can be a hassle to arrange live music for an event. The founders of Gigstarter wanted to facilitate this process and lower the threshold for live music. As their slogan states:

“Less hassle, More music”.

Continue reading “Less hassle, more music” – Gigstarter →