Proving that everything has a market, invites to Kevin Rose’s P2P service Pownce are up for sale on eBay.
Bidding on Pownce invites start at 1c with buy it now prices at $5.
It wasn’t that long ago when Gmail invites were available for sale on eBay, although I’d suggest there is a world of difference between the wildly innovative email platform (at the time) and a P2P platform such as Pownce. The question then becomes, for those desperate for an invite: Yes or No, Thank You; the exact options on the error message Pownce Desktop Client users get to see at least a dozen times a day.
(via Paris Lemon, image credit LOLcats)
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It’s a prove that this server will have some success
Wow. Do you know how easy it is to get infinite invites on pownce? step 1 - create multiple gmails. step 2 - email yourself one of your pownce invites. voila. as many invites as you need to generate. but that would be cheating right? got pwnce? I do. who wants? http://pownce.com/pwnce.
Any business suatainable model makes sense.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
I want an invite
Craziness.
I’m watching their traffic charts here:
http://blog.simpy.com/blojsom/.....harts.html
It will be interesting to see the spike after the weekend.
Seriously, anyone who pays to get into a free service has to be a moron.
The simplest way to get an invite is to do a google blog search.
(Btw, I am giving away free invites at my blog)
Hi
I want an invite
Don’t want to blow your bubble but I guess all you need is crappy idea and a good marketer. I tried Pownce last week, (sorry ran out of my 6 invites) and it reminded me of Sanjaya from the last American Idol. I am sure you all know what I mean. I hope it does not last as long Sanjaya did.
I still have 5 invites to anyone that would like one.
Thats nuts … shows people try to make money even on FREE items!
Darin
hi chris, send me an invite
http://www.suggestusability.com
There is always a market for everything.
Saeed
http://www.seomydomain.com
Yeah, this is ridiculous. Like the others who commented above me, I also have invites that I’m giving away… wait for it… FOR FREE! Leave a comment here: http://www.efinke.com/2007/07/.....es-update/ if you want one; I have plenty.
And by the way, anyone who pays to get into Pownce will be sorely disappointed once they start using it. There’s nothing that it does that you couldn’t accomplish with Twitter and YouSendIt.
ridi.fucking.cu.lo.us
“Need to belong” for sale? Social participation as commodity? Wshew.
That having been said, I have four invites remaining, lots of bills, and a zero balance in my paypal account.
smooches.
j.
Come on, $5? I’ve got some laying around if anyone wants one for free. It’s a nice service but I wouldn’t pay for it!
it’s not THAT great.
You should get a free jar of vaseline with each pownce account purchase on eBay.
Isn’t this just a PR/Marketing technique?
Hell, it’s the lead story in Tech Crunch this weekend at the moment. Mission Accomplished?
Definitely a good marketing tactic; not brilliant, but good.
The only interesting thing about pownce is the tools they used to develop it. I think it may be the first to have been created as an application for the web and desktop simultaneously. Lots of these will be coming down the pipe toward the end of this year.
They need an SMS code.
How does one pronounce Pownce? What is the point of Pownce? Pownce is no Gmail.
Let’s think about this for a second:
1. Pownce is a copy of Twitter.
2. Twitter is a purely Echosphere phenomenon that’s not particularly compelling. Microblogging is not a method for delivering any sort of interesting news, thoughts, or information. All it can do is deliver bite-sized blurbs of the over-inflated egos of people like Scoble, Calcanis, etc.
3. Kevin Rose has yet to prove that he has any real focus. Why on earth is he running 3 companies at the same time? Is Digg doomed for failure? Is he hedging his bets? That “kid” surely hasn’t made $60 MM in 18 months - we all know that.
4. Blogging may have become mainstream and for good reason, but I find it hard to imagine why “sharing stuff with people” is something that is particularly innovative or useful. We already have AIM/MSN/Yahoo Messenger, Gmail/Yahoo Mail, and tons of other services that allow us to store/send large files. We also have tons of other services which allow us to share information online - YouTube, et. al.
5. P2P is overrated.
6. Clever marketing works for a bit but you have to have a way to monetize it. AdSense isn’t even going to cover bandwidth/hardware costs with Pownce.
I have a few invites, if anyone wants one ..email me - louis(at) hotspotimports.com
@Jay (let’s not get into pronunciation, it is meaningless; but, here’s a hint: a “buddy pounce” is common in IM)
1)Not really a twitter copy, but certainly “inspired by twitter”. Twitter allows posts thru SMS/IM/Email, while pownce does not, only thru the pownce platform (web or desktop) so it is “closed loop”. Pownce allows for sending files up to 100MB, twitter doesn’t. Both have user pages and RSS syndication. Pownce has a revenue strategy from day one: embedded adds and Pro accts.
2) While I kind of agree, twitter has helped many bloggers increase their reach and strengthen their relationships with their readers. However, used within certain groups of friends, it is also an easy way to keep *everyone* in the loop (eg. activity coordination).
3) Agreed, but all the kiddies on digg love him
4) Sharing stuff isn’t innovative, but people really like to share stuff (please don’t ask why). Figuring out how to share stuff in the best way will bring users, and advertisers with cash in hand. Both pownce and twitter are experiments, but one, both or something similar will make it finacially.
5) Umm…no comment
6) This will not be adwords based, and will probably involve development of a more custom ad matching/delivery platform (specific to the “personalities” of the groups that form and evolve).
I think of pownce as a niche social network.
gmail was only marginally innovative at the time. They mostly copied Oddpost, which had been around for a lot longer.
eBay have actually been auctioning the opportunity to be the first to beta test their San dimas desktop application
see http://blogs.ebay.com/projects.....Z226306010
I have three more invites that can give anybody for free: http://renaissancechambara.com.....ik-e-post/
Trevor - thanks for the link, we raised 251 dollars for charity with the auction of the first San Dimas beta test invite. Of course invitations to betas are only valuable if they are scarce. As this thread proves, Pownce invites are anything but.
-Alan
Interesting marketing technique.
It is not about anything coming up on ebay for sale..But anything ridiculous that comes up on sale gets hyped up in Techcrunch also. Just sometime back we had this German Twitter clone on ebay blown up here..
Interesting to see if the market for Pownce takes off at all - at this point I don’t think there is the same sort of hype as for GMail.
Wow, I didn’t know it was such a hot commodity.
Alright then, I’ll throw in a pownce invite alongside a USB humping dog for the winner of the Googlebot competition. Actually, maybe I’ll just give them away to anyone who enters.
I wonder what the max price for an invite will be. Any guesses?
You can get invites here http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7287
Oh man those cats are so cute. Duncan, can you run more Pownce stories please, if it involves excessively cute cats.
I see several Buy-it-now at $2.50 and nobody’s buying. Where’s the news here? If I put crap for sale on eBay, will I make it in Techcrunch too?
There is NO market of Pownce accounts on eBay. That’s the news in case someone cares.
Please…. Don’t… I mean do not even think about comparing the fever GMail caused in people dying to get an account with Pownce.
If anyone’s got a pownce invite, please email me one @ damodt@gmail.com
Thanks
I have some invites. pownce at dirtygreek dot org
i have a few pownce invites. e-mail me at lacey at kfcomm dot com
I have invites.. emial me at Dawn[at]owar.com