Comments on: Nilaam.PK – An exclusive preview of their upcoming global auctioning platform

By: arif

arif — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:51:37 +0000

http://www.nilaam.pk is live!

By: arif

arif — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:51:09 +0000

looks like nilaam.pk went live early or maybe still testing in its last stages. Anyways, website is live! Nilaam.pk

By: salman

salman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:24:19 +0000

@ mohtashim

regarding merchant services, my understanding is that nilaam.pk will be using moneybookers.com for money transfer which is like paypal. so i don’t see why they will have to go through citibank for that. correct me if i am wrong as i dont know much about it.

as much as i like lootmaar, i dont think it has really picked up .. it can be because of the reasons that FK has mentioned in his blog or might be because lootmaar people haven’t tried as hard as nilaam.pk is atleast supposedly trying to do (even though through wrong means) ..

lootmaar is just karachi based till now which restricts its user base .. also they don’t have too much items to bid for .. not giving enough incentive to the user to come back to their website .. nilaam.pk might have an edge over lootmaar because they are planning too big by opening it throughout pakistan and by bringing different stores to put their items ..

in any case i think its time for lootmaar to get ready for some serious competition ..

my best wishes for lootmaar.com and b4bid .. i don’t think that money can help any web2.0 company to win users .. so big bucks shouldn’t matter too much here .. whoever will run the business model well would have an edge.

By: Hussain

Hussain — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:50:54 +0000

“Pakistan’s #1 Auction Site” – Yeah right!

By: Sohaib Athar

Sohaib Athar — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:35:38 +0000

Adnan – Hundi is when person A at location X pays money to H1, so that person B at location Y gets paid by H2 – its basically money transfer bypassing banks and usually illegal.
Escrow is when two parties agree on a payment schedule and deliverables, and the payer pays the escrow service in advance so that the payee can verify they have the money and will pay up, and later, the escrow service releases the funds as per agreement.

By: Adnan Ali

Adnan Ali — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:22:09 +0000

Nilaam and Lootmaar starting to fight it off in public. Good times are a coming boys!

Perhaps we need some nutty SEO firm and jumpy underdogs for web commerce to really get into mainstream media and the general public’s mind.

I have a question. Isn’t an escrow service basically ‘hundi’?

By: Osama A.

Osama A. — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:55:27 +0000

@Sohaib
Based on the bravado used in that message, I’m guessing it is the same over-zealous SEO firm.

By: Mohtashim

Mohtashim — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:07:57 +0000

ops, sorry i mean if there “wasnt regulation”. and “have several hundred” OH can you please edit the comment. I’m posting from my mobile and gprs so…

By: Mohtashim

Mohtashim — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:05:51 +0000

I would say that Nilaam just validated the market that Lootmaar’s been in for so long. and it seems to me that stuff thats iffy on Nilaam has already been figured out by Lootmaar. And like you guys have said, their SEO firm sucks but whoever hired them is at fault too. Seems to prove that having money isnt the solution to everything

and merchant serviceS? ummmm If you are in Pakistan, you need to go through Citibank, which is hell expensive for consumers. If there wasn’t regulation stopping companies, dont you think every other website would have online merchant services by now? Nilaam can claim whatever they want, the ground reality is that they still have to close a few auctions and have several hundred satisfied users. Good luck Nilaam investors and team, with the quality of people you hired (SEO guys?) and the current website, you’ll need it.

By: Sohaib Athar

Sohaib Athar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:20:23 +0000

@salman
Yea, moneybookers.com for merchant services, and phpprobid for the platform – good work Watson

Here’s another PR – titled “Bad news for Lootmaar” that I found for Nilaam after that initial post. I don’t know whether its a pre-launch fan evangelizing nilaam, or their over-enthusiastic SEO firm, but below-the-belt comment does not win you potential customers, even if you have deep pockets.
I hope they have fired their SEO firm/copywriters by now.

“Nilaam.pk will be lauching in 18 days. Bad news for Adnan as he will not be able to compete with the Goliath!

Nilaam.pk, is a new auction-based online marketplace that is determined to give the Pakistani ecommerce revolution a good hard push.

With Nilaam.pk’s deep pockets, Will Lootmaar.com really be able to compete??”

http://www.topix.com/forum/world/pakistan/T30UPGK3ELKEB1NHL

Goodluck Nilaam.