Tech Untangled

zMobs is a marketplace for buying and selling used goods and service safely and effectively with your “Circle of Trust”. I understand the power of a social network, but I don’t see the need to limit myself only to my network to buy or sell something. I have conducted many financial transactions with people that I’ve never met or heard of and with institutions that I’ve never heard of with no regrets.

The idea behind zMobs is to Buy and Sell with one’s “Circle of Trust” by building a network of friends and contacts. Like LinkedIn, you’d be able to see how many degrees away from the buyer/seller you are and determine their reputation based on pre-existing feedback or go through your network to see if they are trustworthy.

Why does one need the number of degrees of separation to learn the reputation of the seller. On ebay or Amazon, the seller rating indicates the reputation. By only dealing with people I know or I trust, I would drastically reduce my ability to sell or buy. As a buyer, I look for a very competitive market with many sellers, so that I can buy at the lowest cost. As a seller, I would still look for a very competitive market with many buyers, so that I can sell at a high price.

I registered just to try this out and I can see several items listed by people that I don’t even know. Also, I can list an item for anyone to purchase. So how is this based on a social network? Perhaps zMobs will help out clueless people like me by making it clear with a ‘how it works’ page.

And the name reminds me of a ‘mob’ which doesn’t give me a good feeling.

Time and again I am wrong about a startup. However, I’m willing to put money that this one is not going anywhere.