Hello. This class will be about online rental companies, the latest buzz in e-commerce (our next cycle).First,get friendly with your partner, and share some personal info.
1. Have you rented anything from a company or a person?
2. Were you satisfied with the rented item?
3. When is it worth renting something, as opposed to buying it?
Task 1. Check out http://www.hirethings.co.nz, a new online rental company. Click on “See all things for hire” at the bottom of the page. Pick three items you would rent. Choose items whose name you are not familiar with. Then figure out a little tale for each one to explain to us why you need that item.
Task 2. Check out the “help & info“ section of the website. Find the following information. 
Guess: What obstacles are the owners facing when starting an online rental business?
SCROLL
DOWN
TO READ
ABOUT
TWO
PROBLEMS
THAT
ONLINE
RENTAL
STARTUPS
ARE
FACING
Task 3. Here’s two obstacles that makes life difficult for online rental startups. Also, you’ll find a possible solution for each of the two problems. Insert the signposts below (phrases that show the connection between sentences) into the article.
1. and the like
2. clear both hurdles and
3. in turn
4. That leads to the second problem, which is trust.
5. The first is
6. There are two big challenges facing an online rentals community.
7. To tackle that concern,
8. use that initial selection to attract early customers, and
February 11, 2008, 4:37 pm
Rent Anything … From the Family Down the Street
By Brad Stone
You can rent a car online. But how about a power drill? Or a disco globe? Or your neighbor’s pool-cleaning equipment?
Another idea from the first dot-com boom — rent items from your neighbors — is making a comeback.
“We all have access to valuable things in our home that 99.9 percent of the time aren’t being used,” said Tim McCormack, one of the three founders of iRent2U, who met studying abroad in Spain during business school and won the business-plan competition at Pepperdine University with the idea. “We are trying to create a collection of hyper-local market based on trust.”
Building critical mass — prospective renters won’t come clicking until there is a good selection of lenders, and vice versa. So all these new start-ups are doing deals with traditional offline rental firms, to add cars, party goods to their sites. They want to convince them to consider renting out everything from their extra propane tanks to their old pinstripe suits.
Do you really want to rent out your lawnmower to a stranger, even if it earns you a couple of extra bucks? (The sites let you set your own prices and rental terms). The companies are creating eBay-style feedback and ratings systems to build trust among participants.
It won’t be easy for any of these companies to build active communities, not just once, but in every local community they want to service. But you can bet if any of them do show momentum, acquisition-minded companies like eBay — already building out its local markets with classified ads services like Kijiji — will come knocking.
Understanding the article:
What’s the philosophy of the creators?
What does it mean here to “build critical mass?”
How do the creators want to build that critical mass?
Why is an eBay-style rating system important to the site?
What does it mean that “eBay will come knocking?”
Task 4. Vocabulary of rentals
1. Who’s a renter, one who rents or rents out items? …………………………..
2. Opposite of renter: ………………………..
3. A person that might want to rent: ……………………………..
4. To allow people to rent your lawnmower: …………………..
5. The act of renting is called ……………………….
Task 5. Find phrases in the article that mean the same thing:
1. Do business with: …………………………………
2. To cope with a problem: …………………………………
3. You can be sure: …………………………………
4. Collect enough people and goods: …………………………………
5. will not visit your site: …………………………………
6. to make people trust each other: …………………………………
7. such things: …………………………………
8. beginning (adj.): …………………………………
9. then: …………………………………
10. the other way round: …………………………………
Task 6. Let’s do a market research before we do the Hungarian version of HireThings. Interview each other.
1. What items could you rent out?
2. Which of these items would you actually rent out?
1. How much is it to list my stuff on Hirethings?
2. Who pays the success fee, the lender or the renter?
3. How many photos can I upload to my items?
Ajánlott bejegyzések:
A bejegyzés trackback címe:
Kommentek:
A hozzászólások a vonatkozó jogszabályok értelmében felhasználói tartalomnak minősülnek, értük a szolgáltatás technikai üzemeltetője semmilyen felelősséget nem vállal, azokat nem ellenőrzi. Kifogás esetén forduljon a blog szerkesztőjéhez. Részletek a Felhasználási feltételekben és az adatvédelmi tájékoztatóban.
kisdobos 2008.02.26. 13:44:22
There are two big challenges facing an online rentals community. The first is building critical mass — prospective renters won’t come clicking until there is a good selection of lenders, and vice versa. So all these new start-ups are doing deals with traditional offline rental firms, to add cars, party goods and the like to their sites. They want to use that initial selection to attract early customers, and convince them in turn to consider renting out everything from their extra propane tanks to their old pinstripe suits.
That leads to the second problem, which is trust. Do you really want to rent out your lawnmower to a stranger, even if it earns you a couple of extra bucks? (The sites let you set your own prices and rental terms). To tackle that concern, the companies are creating eBay-style feedback and ratings systems to build trust among participants.
It won’t be easy for any of these companies to clear both hurdles and build active communities, not just once, but in every local community they want to service. But you can bet if any of them do show momentum, acquisition-minded companies like eBay — already building out its local markets with classified ads services like Kijiji — will come knocking.
CLASS 7.1. Solutions to Task 4.
1. A renter rents items from lenders
2. The opposite of renter is lender
3. A person that might want to rent is a prospective renter
4. To allow people to rent your lawnmower: rent out
5. The act of renting is called a rental
CLASS 7.1. Solutions to Task 5.
1. Do business with: do deals with
2. To cope with a problem: tackle, clear both hurdles
3. You can be sure: You can bet
4. Collect enough people and goods: build critical mass
5. will not visit your site: won’t come clicking
6. to make people trust each other: build trust among participants
7. such things: the like
8. beginning (adj.): initial
9. then: in turn
10. the other way round: vice versa