I need to build an eBay-style web platform. HELP!

[Hybr1d]

Hello Fastlane,

This is my first post here so I hope I'm doing this right. Feel free to let me know if not.

I have spent nearly the last three decades in corporate S&M - from startups to Fortune 500 - and I am now ready to apply my knowledge and experience to my own business. I have a fully-developed idea that I know will be successful. I can state confidently that I know how to do everything I need to do except for the most important thing: building a website that I can host from anywhere in the world, can scale up quickly as I grow the user base, and turn into a high-value global brand with a billion-dollar exit strategy. I am dead in the water presently as I haven't a clue about where to begin.

So here's what I need to accomplish: Become an expert in building a website like eBay. I don't need to learn to code or design, but rather think of me as the project manager. I need to learn to specify my requirements, learn the nuts and bolts of contemporary internet infrastructure, learn what questions to ask of prospective vendors, learn how to protect my site and my users from outside attacks, and learn how to put together a budget to share with my investors.

I am old enough to remember the world before the internet. And I remember sending my first email and how amazing I thought that was. So having come of age with the dawn of the web, I feel like I should know more about its inner-working, but I've been so laser-focused on shifting units and net margins over the course of my career, that I neglected to become conversant in the most significant development in human history. So feel free to assume I know nothing about the internet except the fact that it exists. In fact, think of me as that project manager who is experienced in identifying requirements and marshalling resources but was literally just dropped on the Earth from Cyglar-4 where we have no internet and help me rediscover that sense of awe and wonder of sending my first email... I am your blank canvas.

Thank you in advance and please - by all means let me know how I can reciprocate!

 

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[kyrisu]

There's a lot to unpack here.

First, let me just say that my professional experience is a flipped version of yours. I spend my career on the tech side of things (software development, systems architecture, DevOps), bringing platforms from zero to thousands of concurrent users. Currently, while working on my own business, I'm learning the other side of the equation.

I have a fully-developed idea that I know will be successful.

I will trust you on that and assume you did your market research etc. Although you never really know until the first paying customer. I'm saying this because if it's not something 100% sure (like cure for cancer) I would start with an MVP and run user / product tests. Jumping straight into deep water not only increases the risk of building what users don't want, but also increases the infrastructure costs, management overhead and surface of attack (which in turn increases the spending on IT security).

So here's what I need to accomplish: Become an expert in building a website like eBay.

That's a huge task because eBay is many things (marketplace, auction house, p2p platform, payments system etc.) + it's operating in a two-sided market where each side has their needs regarding functionality. As I've mentioned before - start small. I've seen features being build out of misguided assumptions that were used by a minority, but cost us hundreds of hours of development time and thousands USD / month in infrastructure.

So having come of age with the dawn of the web, I feel like I should know more about its inner-working, but I've been so laser-focused on shifting units and net margins over the course of my career, that I neglected to become conversant in the most significant development in human history.

Inner workings stayed the same, but otherwise it's almost a flavor of the month nowadays There are some long-standing best practices, but when it comes to development and infrastructure it all depends. During my previous project, we revamped the infrastructure architecture almost every year because AWS were introducing features that had the potential to cut our management and infrastructure cost by 30% - 40% with the exact same codebase.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions you may have. Otherwise, if I try to guess, this post will morph into an unruly mess of wild assumptions and tech speak.

 

[Hybr1d]

There's a lot to unpack here.

As with any worthwhile endeavor.

First, let me just say that my professional experience is a flipped version of yours. I spend my career on the tech side of things (software development, systems architecture, DevOps), bringing platforms from zero to thousands of concurrent users. Currently, while working on my own business, I'm learning the other side of the equation.

Very interesting. Sounds like we could be in a position to help each other.

I will trust you on that and assume you did your market research etc. Although you never really know until the first paying customer. I'm saying this because if it's not something 100% sure (like cure for cancer) I would start with an MVP and run user / product tests. Jumping straight into deep water not only increases the risk of building what users don't want, but also increases the infrastructure costs, management overhead and surface of attack (which in turn increases the spending on IT security).

Business plan and concept is solid. This will be a genuine disruptor guaranteed to steal market share from the existing channel. What is "MVP" ?

That's a huge task because eBay is many things (marketplace, auction house, p2p platform, payments system etc.) + it's operating in a two-sided market where each side has their needs regarding functionality. As I've mentioned before - start small. I've seen features being build out of misguided assumptions that were used by a minority, but cost us hundreds of hours of development time and thousands USD / month in infrastructure.

Understood. That's exactly what I'm after - functionally an eBay clone.

Inner workings stayed the same, but otherwise it's almost a flavor of the month nowadays There are some long-standing best practices, but when it comes to development and infrastructure it all depends. During my previous project, we revamped the infrastructure architecture almost every year because AWS were introducing features that had the potential to cut our management and infrastructure cost by 30% - 40% with the exact same codebase.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions you may have. Otherwise, if I try to guess, this post will morph into an unruly mess of wild assumptions and tech speak.

What I really want to do is build a site that feels like eBay, has the same functionality, but feels much better to the seller - which is mostly policy-driven and less to do with technology payload. That said, what I am seeking from this group is a plan to make that happen. Again, I am the project manager dropped from the sky with no knowledge of any kind about running websites, so I am giving you a blank canvas. I'd rather learn from someone who knows what they're doing rather than bolt something together through trial and error. Thanks so far for the engagement.

 

[BizyDad]

As with any worthwhile endeavor.

Very interesting. Sounds like we could be in a position to help each other.

Business plan and concept is solid. This will be a genuine disruptor guaranteed to steal market share from the existing channel. What is "MVP" ?

Understood. That's exactly what I'm after - functionally an eBay clone.

What I really want to do is build a site that feels like eBay, has the same functionality, but feels much better to the seller - which is mostly policy-driven and less to do with technology payload. That said, what I am seeking from this group is a plan to make that happen. Again, I am the project manager dropped from the sky with no knowledge of any kind about running websites, so I am giving you a blank canvas. I'd rather learn from someone who knows what they're doing rather than bolt something together through trial and error. Thanks so far for the engagement.

Okay Mr Project Manager, do you need the first iteration of this website to be an eBay clone? MVP = minimally viable product. If the business plan is solid, then you should have a first iteration of this website...

I mean you're asking for something that took tens of millions of dollars to code. What kind of resources do you have for this project?

 

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[Hybr1d]

Okay Mr Project Manager, do you need the first iteration of this website to be an eBay clone? MVP = minimally viable product. If the business plan is solid, then you should have a first iteration of this website...

I mean you're asking for something that took tens of millions of dollars to code. What kind of resources do you have for this project?

Good things to consider. Thank you. The business plan calls for a fully-functional website out of the gate. Along with an app, of course.

Yes eBay as it currently exists is the result of thousands of hours of input and expense, thus great evidence for the value of being second. My objective here is to improve upon the platform, thus leveraging those tens of millions of dollars to the benefit of my customers and my business. I am in the fortunate position of not having to invent the wheel - just to make a better one.

And while comments on my business plan are welcome, please note the objective of this thread specifically is to create my website by engaging with people who've done it before. I'll share the bits that I am comfortable sharing, but in this thread I'd prefer to focus on what it takes to get the site built and what it will cost.

The high-level view of my plan is to keep a Bezos-like obsessive focus on the customer - on both sides of the equation, buyer and seller - and offer a superior experience at a lower cost, with some other competitive advantages I may disclose at a later date.

Thanks!

 

[BizyDad]

I'd prefer to focus on what it takes to get the site built and what it will cost.

eBay as it currently exists is the result of thousands of hours of input and expense

tens of millions of dollars

You already have your answer. Especially since this is your requirement.

The business plan calls for a fully-functional website out of the gate. Along with an app, of course.

Now...

I am in the fortunate position of not having to invent the wheel - just to make a better one.

You actually DO need to invent the wheel. The code that built eBay is antiquated.

engaging with people who've done it before.

But since this is the direction you seem to insist you want to go in, might I suggest you...

Hire former eBay coders?

Be prepared to spend several $200k+ salaries before you ever see a dime of revenue. The timeline depends on how many engineers you have working on the project. You can find coders who will work for cheaper, and they will sound to you like they can get the job done, but you will find out later why they were cheap.

I know you don't want criticism of your business plan, but this seems to be what your business plan calls for. Plow millions of dollars into a website and app that no one will see for..quite some time.

Along with an app

Food for thought. There's no such thing as "an app".

There's apps for Android, there's apps for Apple, there apps for Windows. Each one is going to cost you additional dollars to build.

And maintain. Good Lord.

And then there's PWA's.

If you've written a business plan, and you haven't learned that much yet, I would suggest that your business plan is incomplete.

of course.

Lastly, there is no single person on this forum, or anywhere really, who has "done this before". eBay was a team effort. The team that builds and maintains your Iphone app is different than the team that handles the website. You need database people, you need front end people, you need coders, you need cyber security experts.

I think there's better ways to go about this, but I don't like the controlling nature of your responses so I'll bow out here.

There are actually quite a few coders on the forum. I believe it is telling that they are staying silent. Every coder knows the experience of dealing with an unreasonable "visionary" whose dreams exceed their budget.

It is hard enough offering education "for free". But attempting to educate with someone who only wants to hear responses they want to hear... People don't have time for that.

I hope you get where your going.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

@BizyDad to be fair - eBay was built as one of the first multi-way marketplaces ever, so it cost a lot more because of that.

Now that there are so many such marketplaces online, it should be faster, cheaper, and easier to build one.

There are (should be?) tools to help set up a marketplace online. Like Shopify, but for a multi-directional marketplace instead of a single-directional store. OP shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

That being said... is OP cut out for this business? Only they know that

 

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[Hybr1d]

You already have your answer. Especially since this is your requirement.



Now...



You actually DO need to invent the wheel. The code that built eBay is antiquated.



But since this is the direction you seem to insist you want to go in, might I suggest you...

Hire former eBay coders?

Be prepared to spend several $200k+ salaries before you ever see a dime of revenue. The timeline depends on how many engineers you have working on the project. You can find coders who will work for cheaper, and they will sound to you like they can get the job done, but you will find out later why they were cheap.

I know you don't want criticism of your business plan, but this seems to be what your business plan calls for. Plow millions of dollars into a website and app that no one will see for..quite some time.



Food for thought. There's no such thing as "an app".

There's apps for Android, there's apps for Apple, there apps for Windows. Each one is going to cost you additional dollars to build.

And maintain. Good Lord.

And then there's PWA's.

If you've written a business plan, and you haven't learned that much yet, I would suggest that your business plan is incomplete.



Lastly, there is no single person on this forum, or anywhere really, who has "done this before". eBay was a team effort. The team that builds and maintains your Iphone app is different than the team that handles the website. You need database people, you need front end people, you need coders, you need cyber security experts.

I think there's better ways to go about this, but I don't like the controlling nature of your responses so I'll bow out here.

There are actually quite a few coders on the forum. I believe it is telling that they are staying silent. Every coder knows the experience of dealing with an unreasonable "visionary" whose dreams exceed their budget.

It is hard enough offering education "for free". But attempting to educate with someone who only wants to hear responses they want to hear... People don't have time for that.

I hope you get where your going.

Thank you for your input. Enjoy your day.

 

[Hybr1d]

@BizyDad to be fair - eBay was built as one of the first multi-way marketplaces ever, so it cost a lot more because of that.

Now that there are so many such marketplaces online, it should be faster, cheaper, and easier to build one.

There are (should be?) tools to help set up a marketplace online. Like Shopify, but for a multi-directional marketplace instead of a single-directional store. OP shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

That being said... is OP cut out for this business? Only they know that

Thank you for your input. Perhaps I am poorly articulating my requirements, but what you wrote above is encouraging and aligned with my assumptions - that I don't need to reinvent the wheel and can reasonably adapt some tranches of existing code to suit my purposes. Elon did not have to invent the car to create Tesla - he simply applied new thinking to an existing platform and created a product with which he could create demand.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I am not interested in "fair," but rather "honest." @BizyDad was not being unfair, he was being honest and I appreciate that. That doesn't mean I agree with him, just that I appreciate his honesty, despite some of his unfounded assumptions.

Back on topic, there must be some resources out there that I am not aware of that could help me gain some insight into the nuts and bolts of what I want to achieve. Elon bought a Lotus Elise and put electric motors in it, creating a product in line with his vision. We can debate whether he made it "better," but he proved again that there is good value in being second. I guess what I'm looking for is my Lotus... I'm hoping some folks here can help me find it.

 

[Skroob]

So, I'm one of the coders that @BizyDad mentioned (well, sort of. I'm an iOS developer, but same idea.)

You have to know you're not the first person to ask for this, right? In my consultant days, I had damn near every single popular site pitched to me, with very small (or no) differences. So, in the interest of helping you; if you were pitching a web development consultant on this as a potential partner, what exactly would you tell them to get them on board? What's going to be so different about your eBay that will take entrenched customers away from actual eBay, where all the buyers and sellers already are?

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

So, I'm one of the coders that @BizyDad mentioned (well, sort of. I'm an iOS developer, but same idea.)

You have to know you're not the first person to ask for this, right? In my consultant days, I had damn near every single popular site pitched to me, with very small (or no) differences. So, in the interest of helping you; if you were pitching a web development consultant on this as a potential partner, what exactly would you tell them to get them on board? What's going to be so different about your eBay that will take entrenched customers away from actual eBay, where all the buyers and sellers already are?

Is this the only way to do it? Or is there something like Shopify or Xenforo, but for a marketplace business?

OP, I actually know a guy who built a marketplace biz for steel*. I don't know how it's doing marketing-wise (it seems like very few people actually use it, sadly) but it has all of the tech needed. So to answer your question, yes, it can totally be done, and no, you do not need the capital or backing that eBay needed 20+ years ago. Creating an online marketplace is not the same caliber of problem that it was in the 90's.

However, for this guy, the problem is getting people's eyeballs on it and getting them to use it... which, like most people doing things on the forum, you'll find to be a common theme. Execution and marketing > building

*Users of this guy's website can list various steel parts for sale and other users can buy those parts. And again, there was no VC money, no decades of development... etc... It is a simpler problem today than it was back then. Adoption is the big issue. Because you need both buyers AND sellers to use your site, and neither wants to use your site without the other...

 

[Skroob]

Is this the only way to do it? Or is there something like Shopify or Xenforo, but for a marketplace business?

OP, I actually know a guy who built a marketplace biz for steel*. I don't know how it's doing marketing-wise (it seems like very few people actually use it, sadly) but it has all of the tech needed. So to answer your question, yes, it can totally be done, and no, you do not need the capital or backing that eBay needed 20+ years ago. Creating an online marketplace is not the same caliber of problem that it was in the 90's.

However, for this guy, the problem is getting people's eyeballs on it and getting them to use it... which, like most people doing things on the forum, you'll find to be a common theme. Execution and marketing > building

*Users of this guy's website can list various steel parts for sale and other users can buy those parts. And again, there was no VC money, no decades of development... etc... It is a simpler problem today than it was back then. Adoption is the big issue.

I don't know of any off the shelf marketplace software, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If I was to take this on, I'd try to find one before building it myself. I'd use as much pre-written pre-tested code as I could, because it's a BIG job no matter what you do.

The reason I asked what I did is because execution is always more important, and even more so when you're straining against 30 years of network effect. Any developer taking on a monster project like this should ask that question; if they don't, you do not want them developing your site. They will take your money and either never finish, or never even start.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

I don't know of any off the shelf marketplace software, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If I was to take this on, I'd try to find one before building it myself. I'd use as much pre-written pre-tested code as I could, because it's a BIG job no matter what you do.

The reason I asked what I did is because execution is always more important, and even more so when you're straining against 30 years of network effect. Any developer taking on a monster project like this should ask that question; if they don't, you do not want them developing your site. They will take your money and either never finish, or never even start.

Yeah, for sure. The network effect problem is what I was referring to - getting users is (probably) way harder than building the site (in 2023).

Also, I'm sure that a few hours scouring github will turn up something, if there aren't already a slew of commercial solutions.

 

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[Hybr1d]

So, I'm one of the coders that @BizyDad mentioned (well, sort of. I'm an iOS developer, but same idea.)

You have to know you're not the first person to ask for this, right? In my consultant days, I had damn near every single popular site pitched to me, with very small (or no) differences. So, in the interest of helping you; if you were pitching a web development consultant on this as a potential partner, what exactly would you tell them to get them on board? What's going to be so different about your eBay that will take entrenched customers away from actual eBay, where all the buyers and sellers already are?

A fair question and thank you for asking. Though I am not comfortable disclosing specific details about my business plan, I will answer your question thusly: I differentiate by focusing on an overwhelming exceptional end user experience - with Bezos-like obsession - that it would be almost impossible to ignore the benefits of my platform. This is the draw.

A little back story: I have been selling with the actual eBay since nearly the beginning: over a quarter century. I have seen the good (and there is a lot), the bad (growing IMHO), and the "meh." When I started selling on eBay, I'm quite sure the business was still being run out of Pierre Omidyar's apartment in San Jose. My plan relies more on policy than on technology, but technology is the key to the kingdom - and this is the piece of the puzzle that I'm missing. Some while ago, after becoming frustrated with a dispute on another selling platform (not eBay), I posed a question: "What would I change were I running eBay?" This project is my answer to that question.

I refuse to believe I need to spend tens of millions of dollars - as some have already suggested - to give life to my vision. I think I can do this by finding my Lotus Elise as Elon did when he created Tesla. Sometimes being first is out of the realm of possibility, but being second has huge advantages.

thank you for your input.

 

[Hybr1d]

Is this the only way to do it? Or is there something like Shopify or Xenforo, but for a marketplace business?

You read my mind!

OP, I actually know a guy who built a marketplace biz for steel*. I don't know how it's doing marketing-wise (it seems like very few people actually use it, sadly) but it has all of the tech needed. So to answer your question, yes, it can totally be done, and no, you do not need the capital or backing that eBay needed 20+ years ago. Creating an online marketplace is not the same caliber of problem that it was in the 90's.

This sounds both reasonable and encouraging.

However, for this guy, the problem is getting people's eyeballs on it and getting them to use it... which, like most people doing things on the forum, you'll find to be a common theme. Execution and marketing > building

*Users of this guy's website can list various steel parts for sale and other users can buy those parts. And again, there was no VC money, no decades of development... etc... It is a simpler problem today than it was back then. Adoption is the big issue. Because you need both buyers AND sellers to use your site, and neither wants to use your site without the other...

All good points. And I have a plan to get both! I'm just missing the place to bring them together.

 

[Hybr1d]

I don't know of any off the shelf marketplace software, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If I was to take this on, I'd try to find one before building it myself. I'd use as much pre-written pre-tested code as I could, because it's a BIG job no matter what you do.

You just read my mind. I am looking for a "phpBB" equivalent of a multi-user commerce platform that I can adapt to my requirements.

The reason I asked what I did is because execution is always more important, and even more so when you're straining against 30 years of network effect. Any developer taking on a monster project like this should ask that question; if they don't, you do not want them developing your site. They will take your money and either never finish, or never even start.

Great points and thank you.

 

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[Hybr1d]

Yeah, for sure. The network effect problem is what I was referring to - getting users is (probably) way harder than building the site (in 2023).

Also, I'm sure that a few hours scouring github will turn up something, if there aren't already a slew of commercial solutions.

IME, The Network Effect is a two-way street, however. It can work against you as easily as it works in your favor. It is specifically these deficits of the current purveyors of online casual selling platforms that I am taking aim at. I know there are large groups of users who are dissatisfied, and I will offer a better experience. Thank you for the GitHub recommendation and for your input.

 

[BizyDad]

Elon did not have to invent the car to create Tesla - he simply applied new thinking to an existing platform and created a product with which he could create demand.

Elon had to invent a new way to make car batteries. Navigation system. Etc. Elon invested plenty to create Tesla.

@BizyDad to be fair - eBay was built as one of the first multi-way marketplaces ever, so it cost a lot more because of that.

Now that there are so many such marketplaces online, it should be faster, cheaper, and easier to build one.

There are (should be?) tools to help set up a marketplace online. Like Shopify, but for a multi-directional marketplace instead of a single-directional store. OP shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.

That being said... is OP cut out for this business? Only they know that

Sure. I never said he'd have to spend exactly how much eBay spent. But I think you're forgetting this part of the thread...



He wants more than a marketplace.

So I am not *unfounded* in my assumptions. I'm taking the OP at his word.

He listed his expectations and they are greater than simply marketplace.

Any Google search can get you marketplace software.

https://www.g2.com/categories/marketplace

Alternatively, you can do a search for auction software and find these guys AuctionSoftware

But he wants features that don't exist. Special upgrades. So it's an eBay clone, allegedly, but then there are improvements. Hence not a clone.

And since he's being super cagey about what these upgrades even are, there is literally no one who can give him an estimate on time frames. And without an estimate on time frames, no one could give him an estimate on cost.

But I gave literally the best advice available. Do a LinkedIn search former eBay engineers.

Get an NDA/ non-compete drawn up.

And speak to somebody with real expertise in actually having built eBay.

Here's a screenshot of a part of eBay's job board.




I'm under the "assumption" that the OP wants an eBay clone. He's going to need to hire multiple engineers.

despite some of his unfounded assumptions.

If my "assumptions" are wrong or misguided, blame it on poor communication, not faulty thinking.

Lastly, you're here looking for easy answers. You want an eBay clone, and you wanted as cheap as possible. All of these off the shelf solutions are not on eBay clone.

Two Google searches is too much for you. This whole thread is one huge action fake.

Jeff Bezos doesn't look for easy answers. So please stop comparing yourself to him.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Do you have money? Then hire someone.

Do you have skills and lots of time? Then try something like this: GitHub - magetop/magento2-multi-vendor-marketplace: Magento 2 Multi Vendor Marketplace Extension will helps you create a site like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Alibaba, Aliexpress where anyone can sell anything or a niche multi-vendor site focused on a specific product category like art or electronics.

 

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[Hybr1d]

Elon had to invent a new way to make car batteries. Navigation system. Etc. Elon invested plenty to create Tesla.



Sure. I never said he'd have to spend exactly how much eBay spent. But I think you're forgetting this part of the thread...

View attachment 48517

He wants more than a marketplace.

So I am not *unfounded* in my assumptions. I'm taking the OP at his word.

He listed his expectations and they are greater than simply marketplace.

Any Google search can get you marketplace software.

https://www.g2.com/categories/marketplace

Alternatively, you can do a search for auction software and find these guys AuctionSoftware

But he wants features that don't exist. Special upgrades. So it's an eBay clone, allegedly, but then there are improvements. Hence not a clone.

And since he's being super cagey about what these upgrades even are, there is literally no one who can give him an estimate on time frames. And without an estimate on time frames, no one could give him an estimate on cost.

But I gave literally the best advice available. Do a LinkedIn search former eBay engineers.

Get an NDA/ non-compete drawn up.

And speak to somebody with real expertise in actually having built eBay.

Here's a screenshot of a part of eBay's job board.

View attachment 48518


I'm under the "assumption" that the OP wants an eBay clone. He's going to need to hire multiple engineers.



If my "assumptions" are wrong or misguided, blame it on poor communication, not faulty thinking.

Lastly, you're here looking for easy answers. You want an eBay clone, and you wanted as cheap as possible. All of these off the shelf solutions are not on eBay clone.

Two Google searches is too much for you. This whole thread is one huge action fake.

Jeff Bezos doesn't look for easy answers. So please stop comparing yourself to him.

Thank you for your input. Wishing you a pleasant afternoon.

 

[Hybr1d]

Do you have money? Then hire someone.

Do you have skills and lots of time? Then try something like this: GitHub - magetop/magento2-multi-vendor-marketplace: Magento 2 Multi Vendor Marketplace Extension will helps you create a site like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Alibaba, Aliexpress where anyone can sell anything or a niche multi-vendor site focused on a specific product category like art or electronics.

This is very helpful. Thank you!

 

[RudyR]

So even if there is existing software/APIs that you can use as a foundation. You’re going to need a team. The way your describing this, it needs to be scalable. Meaning all the software should be created in Docker. This way it can scale on any Cloud Platform, like AWS, Azure, Google.

Typically for these type of engagements and the projects that I’ve worked on, we have the following roles for our team:

Project Manager
Engagement Manager/Scrum Master
Solution Architect
1-2 Software Engineers
1-2 Cloud Engineers

And that’s not including any app developers for Android and iOS…You can consider using the Electron framework, which is cross platform compatible.

Just to set expectations. I've done a lot less, and that took 3 months or so. This looks like a year of so worth of engagement. Keep in mind, that a task is calculated in a 1/3/5 day timeframe. There’s daily meetings and what’s called a sprint. Which summarizes what you are going to plan/do that week. The first few weeks will be a discovery period. This is to get the team a feel for what you want and a break down of the actually tech involved.

 

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[Hybr1d]

So even if there is existing software/APIs that you can use as a foundation. You’re going to need a team. The way your describing this, it needs to be scalable. Meaning all the software should be created in Docker. This way it can scale on any Cloud Platform, like AWS, Azure, Google.

Typically for these type of engagements and the projects that I’ve worked on, we have the following roles for our team:

Project Manager
Engagement Manager/Scrum Master
Solution Architect
1-2 Software Engineers
1-2 Cloud Engineers

And that’s not including any app developers for Android and iOS…You can consider using the Electron framework, which is cross platform compatible.

Just to set expectations. I've done a lot less, and that took 3 months or so. This looks like a year of so worth of engagement. Keep in mind, that a task is calculated in a 1/3/5 day timeframe. There’s daily meetings and what’s called a sprint. Which summarizes what you are going to plan/do that week. The first few weeks will be a discovery period. This is to get the team a feel for what you want and a break down of the actually tech involved.

Thank you. This is very helpful. Appreciate your input.

 

[Xeon]

When I hear things like building a <insert name of big tech company here> clone, I roll my eyes. Lots can be said about this, and it's not about discouraging you, but being realistic.

None of those off the shelf stuff are going to work, so the first thing you should do now, is to start securing rounds and rounds of multi-millions in funding every quarter for the next several years to get a chance to pull this off.

 

[Hybr1d]

When I hear things like building a <insert name of big tech company here> clone, I roll my eyes. Lots can be said about this, and it's not about discouraging you, but being realistic.

None of those off the shelf stuff are going to work, so the first thing you should do now, is to start securing rounds and rounds of multi-millions in funding every quarter for the next several years to get a chance to pull this off.

Thank you for the input. Can you help me understand why an OTS solution won't work?

 

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[Xeon]

Thank you for the input. Can you help me understand why an OTS solution won't work?

You already have a vision of how the site will look and work.

OTS solutions can't cater to every possibility including Shopify. There'll be many things to customize, to change, some simple some complex, and the complex ones will require heavy customization and even rewrites of big chunks of proprietory code, so you either need to pay the company who developed the OTS to do that for you, which is going to be expensive, or find developers assuming the OTS is open source or provides access to the code base.

For the latter, take into account that many freelance developers promised the skies but deliver nothing, and keep telling you it'll be done "this week" when it's all just a method to drag the development timeframe to suck more money from you.

The pattern for these OTS will go like this:

1) You install it, and on first glance, everything looks good.

2) You discover it doesn't have X feature, so you spend $$$ to customize it

3) You then discover it requires huge rewriting of certain sections of code because it wasn't meant to do X feature

4) While doing the above, new bugs are introduced in other places so you spend more time testing and the more you test, the more things you realized are lacking

5) You then go back to 3) and enter this infinite loop

3 months and 2 weeks later, you realized you've blown US$185,000 of your own savings.

What about the hosting? This won't be done on cheap shared hosting, so this alone will bleed you dry monthly. While you get the users the join, the profits won't come in fast enough to pay for the data infrastructure.

And let's say eventually this clone is somehow completed, and you get an eBay clone. Where and how are you going to get people to join? You'll need lots of sellers AND buyers simultaneously, and numbers like 35k buyers and sellers are not enough.

How are you going to convince that many people who will somehow take out their precious time to register new accounts? To take photos and upload their items? What will incentivize them to learn to use your new website? To get a feel of how tough it is to achieve just that alone, try going to the streets and convince people to take out their phone and register a new user account on some site they've never heard of before, then ask them to upload their items there lol
Let's see how much time and effort you need to spend to convince just 1 person to do that.

And assuming they do, what will incentivize them to be active users and not just register a new account and vanish?

These sort of big tech clones are a dime a dozen. There's several clones of Etsy, none of them are going anywhere, and that is already with investor funding.

You'll need heavy investor funding to pull anything like this off. Never mind the coding part, that's the least of your worries. Uber, and many of these sort of B2B/B2C/C2C platform marketplaces and big platforms (Temu, Shein, Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo) did not start with John spending his own savings. They had huge, sustained and long-term explosive marketing campaigns, like those superbowl ads, with celeb endorsement, to pull this shit off. This isn't like 1985 or 1999 where Bill quits school, holes up in his mom's garage and develops an idea that changes the world and makes him a billionaire.

Many of the platform sites nowadays are child companies / subsidiaries of existing big tech companies, or are funded by one. How did you think Temu can take on Amazon? Because John spent US$200,000 of his life savings? How will you compete with eBay?

Honestly, I think you'll have better chances setting up a company that builds platform marketplaces for people who want to start eBay/Etsy/FB clones. Sell the shovels.

If you've been on the freelancer.com/Upwork long enough, you'll see similar posts as yours, several times a week or even more frequent, where Mr. X wants to build an Instagram/Google/FB/eBay/Amazon. I can guarantee none of those succeeded lol

 

[Xeon]

Typically for these type of engagements and the projects that I’ve worked on, we have the following roles for our team:

Project Manager
Engagement Manager/Scrum Master
Solution Architect
1-2 Software Engineers
1-2 Cloud Engineers

Don't forget the UI and UX designers too, and possibly a graphic designer to design all the marketing collaterals. And the quality assurance/user testing roles!

 

[Hybr1d]

You already have a vision of how the site will look and work.

OTS solutions can't cater to every possibility including Shopify. There'll be many things to customize, to change, some simple some complex, and the complex ones will require heavy customization and even rewrites of big chunks of proprietory code, so you either need to pay the company who developed the OTS to do that for you, which is going to be expensive, or find developers assuming the OTS is open source or provides access to the code base.

For the latter, take into account that many freelance developers promised the skies but deliver nothing, and keep telling you it'll be done "this week" when it's all just a method to drag the development timeframe to suck more money from you.

The pattern for these OTS will go like this:

1) You install it, and on first glance, everything looks good.

2) You discover it doesn't have X feature, so you spend $$$ to customize it

3) You then discover it requires huge rewriting of certain sections of code because it wasn't meant to do X feature

4) While doing the above, new bugs are introduced in other places so you spend more time testing and the more you test, the more things you realized are lacking

5) You then go back to 3) and enter this infinite loop

3 months and 2 weeks later, you realized you've blown US$185,000 of your own savings.

What about the hosting? This won't be done on cheap shared hosting, so this alone will bleed you dry monthly. While you get the users the join, the profits won't come in fast enough to pay for the data infrastructure.

And let's say eventually this clone is somehow completed, and you get an eBay clone. Where and how are you going to get people to join? You'll need lots of sellers AND buyers simultaneously, and numbers like 35k buyers and sellers are not enough.

How are you going to convince that many people who will somehow take out their precious time to register new accounts? To take photos and upload their items? What will incentivize them to learn to use your new website? To get a feel of how tough it is to achieve just that alone, try going to the streets and convince people to take out their phone and register a new user account on some site they've never heard of before, then ask them to upload their items there lol
Let's see how much time and effort you need to spend to convince just 1 person to do that.

And assuming they do, what will incentivize them to be active users and not just register a new account and vanish?

These sort of big tech clones are a dime a dozen. There's several clones of Etsy, none of them are going anywhere, and that is already with investor funding.

You'll need heavy investor funding to pull anything like this off. Never mind the coding part, that's the least of your worries. Uber, and many of these sort of B2B/B2C/C2C platform marketplaces and big platforms (Temu, Shein, Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo) did not start with John spending his own savings. They had huge, sustained and long-term explosive marketing campaigns, like those superbowl ads, with celeb endorsement, to pull this shit off. This isn't like 1985 or 1999 where Bill quits school, holes up in his mom's garage and develops an idea that changes the world and makes him a billionaire.

Many of the platform sites nowadays are child companies / subsidiaries of existing big tech companies, or are funded by one. How did you think Temu can take on Amazon? Because John spent US$200,000 of his life savings? How will you compete with eBay?

Honestly, I think you'll have better chances setting up a company that builds platform marketplaces for people who want to start eBay/Etsy/FB clones. Sell the shovels.

If you've been on the freelancer.com/Upwork long enough, you'll see similar posts as yours, several times a week or even more frequent, where Mr. X wants to build an Instagram/Google/FB/eBay/Amazon. I can guarantee none of those succeeded lol

Thank you for the insight.

 

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[BizyDad]

Thank you for the input. Can you help me understand why an OTS solution won't work?

Maybe an analogy will help you understand.

I refuse to believe I need to spend tens of millions of dollars - as some have already suggested - to give life to my vision. I think I can do this by finding my Lotus Elise as Elon did when he created Tesla.

Let's look at, I don't know, Elon Musk's opinion of using the Elise.

You think it's a breakthrough. A cheat code.

I think it's a cautionary tale. And you haven't learned the proper lesson.

Elon Musk: Converting Lotus' Elise To Build The Tesla Roadster Was A Super Dumb Strategy

Tesla used a highly modified Lotus Elise chassis for its original Roadster. It was a super dumb strategy admitted Tesla CEO Elon Musk. One that almost killed Tesla.

www.forbes.com

You're sitting here saying you want to build an improved eBay. That you want to be super responsive and custom and super pleasing to your customers.

But you also want to build it as cheap as possible. Which means you're going to make compromises and be stuck on somebody else's platform.

And you don't know enough to know what compromises are even being made. And there's no way you're going to become an expert on this anytime soon.

Everybody's advice in here sounds just as helpful as everybody else is as long as everybody is speaking nicely.

Which means that instead of building an improved eBay 2.0, you're going to end up with a cheap eBay knockoff.

At. Best. It's more likely the project never gets completed.

And any users that you do get, are just going to feel like it's an even worse experience than eBay.

And you will be forced to redo it all anyway. Just like Elon did.

But you will have wasted your money on the cheap stuff.

And if you have any investors, they're going to be awfully mad at you for wasting their money. If you're funding this on your own money, you're going to be awfully mad for not having taken the good advice when you got it.

Build it right the first time.

So even if there is existing software/APIs that you can use as a foundation. You’re going to need a team. The way your describing this, it needs to be scalable. Meaning all the software should be created in Docker. This way it can scale on any Cloud Platform, like AWS, Azure, Google.

Typically for these type of engagements and the projects that I’ve worked on, we have the following roles for our team:

Project Manager
Engagement Manager/Scrum Master
Solution Architect
1-2 Software Engineers
1-2 Cloud Engineers

And that’s not including any app developers for Android and iOS…You can consider using the Electron framework, which is cross platform compatible.

Just to set expectations. I've done a lot less, and that took 3 months or so. This looks like a year of so worth of engagement. Keep in mind, that a task is calculated in a 1/3/5 day timeframe. There’s daily meetings and what’s called a sprint. Which summarizes what you are going to plan/do that week. The first few weeks will be a discovery period. This is to get the team a feel for what you want and a break down of the actually tech involved.

This guy at least gives you an idea. I'm guessing he's at least a couple of people on the team short for what you want to do,

Don't forget the UI and UX designers too, and possibly a graphic designer to design all the marketing collaterals. And the quality assurance/user testing roles!

Uh huh.

And I'm guessing Rudy is also underestimating the timeline you'll need, assuming you do actually want to wait to launch a fully featured website and app combo.

Like Xeon said, there will be all this other stuff that comes out that didn't get put into the initial schematic. Because that's what always happens.

Conservatively, team of six to eight people each making let's say on average 125k.

One person leading them. Making 200 to 250k.

There's your million dollars a year in salary. Maybe more.

Not counting what you pay yourself as CEO. Which will/should be peanuts if you're raising capital. And hosting charges.

And that's just the start of your team. To get it to day one.

Honestly, I think you'll have better chances setting up a company that builds platform marketplaces for people who want to start eBay/Etsy/FB clones. Sell the shovels.

There's already too much competition for this guy to succeed even at that...

Now think about this.

I shared Google searches with at least 12 different marketplace softwares that you can choose from. I'm sure if I hunted I could find a dozen more. And probably another companies that will promise they can build you a custom one.

Think how many wannabe eBays are out there already in order to support 12-24 different company softwares.

And yet, no one's come close to being number two to eBay.

Why haven't you heard about any of these companies?

As a lifelong eBay user, no eBay rival has sprung up? Doesn't that sound strange to you? eBay users are notoriously dissatisfied.

Where are all these eBay clones that are getting coded? Why has no one raised the bar?

Does it mean it can't be done? Of course not. It's absolutely possible.

But are you the person to do it? Not yet. You can't even tell the difference between good advice and bad advice on this thread. You can't think any of this stuff through for yourself. You're relying on everyone else to do your thinking for you.

The path you are on, you're just going to be another underfunded wannabe knockoff.

Get it wrong, and you won't be able to attract the kind of talent you need to build this stuff you want to build. And boy are your investors going to be taken for a ride if you are promising them this is going to be cheap.

You read my mind!

You just read my mind.

I refuse to believe

This right here is why, at present, you're not cut out to be the CEO of eBay 2.0.

You are easily excited by the people that tell you what you want to hear. Then people who give you good advice, you literally refuse to believe.

Pardon the NSFW nature of this, but this is the business consultation lesson you need today.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/WntjAM2wqF8?feature=share

So here's what I need to accomplish: Become an expert in building a website like eBay.

Do a LinkedIn search for former eBay engineers... Speak to somebody with real expertise in actually having built eBay.

Gosh, right about now, I wish there was some way to locate and talk to actual experts on building eBay.

Hmmm....

There's got to be a way that doesn't involve randos on a forum.

start securing rounds and rounds of multi-millions in funding every quarter for the next several years to get a chance to pull this off.

I wonder if anybody is going to point out how much harder it's going to be to raise capital in the coming decade compared to how it was this past decade. I wonder if that has factored into the business plan or been discussed with investors.

The canary is already dead in that coal mine. H/t @Mike Partee

VCs expected an M&A wave. Dealmaking fell to a decade low instead. | PitchBook

But I guess we don't want to get off topic...

 

[kyrisu]

I agree with most if not all the advice above.

Definitely agree that Ebay 2.0 is an extremely hard feat to pull off. Something on the level of Reddit vs Digg - where Digg needed to mess up hard so that people moved to Reddit. Maybe it's worth mentioning that one of the reasons for Digg failure was the change in design that tried to make the site more modern looking, where Reddit was just simple and straight to the point link sharing site. Even now, Reddit is fighting community pushback to improve the design - people are used to how things are and don't want to change. This may be a similar challenge with Ebay.

That being said, there are a few points I think are missing from the conversation above:

1. Niches - there may not be a place for eBay 2.0, but there may be a place for an eBay for a specific niche with UI / tooling designed for it specifically. Something like eBay for architectural plans that generates a 3D models / renders of a plan that you can walk through.
2. USP - whatever it is, it needs a Unique Selling Point - why would the users switch. Just better experience may not be enough for the users to add the overhead of creating a new account, especially if at the beginning they will get fewer eyes on their products / auctions.
3. Moat - something that is not easily replicable, otherwise the moment it gets any traction some big company will just throw the problem at their thousands of engineers and have it copied in a week. Amazon is notorious for it. For eBay this is the number of users, but in other business case it can be some kind of patented technology. Unfortunately, UI or policy is not it (unless it's extremely difficult to replicate).

Off-topic: I'm really impressed how much effort many of the forum users put into these answers. I'm loving this forum more and more.