Auction house hotshot
Some companies are lucky enough to operate within a business where no competition poses a threat. One of them is Snip, an online auction 'sniper' that allows users to watch any auction on eBay and Allegro and automatically place a bid in the final seconds of the auction.
Snip was invented by Piotr Tomczyk, an IT student at the time, who is now representing Chaos Brothers, the company behind Snip. 'The sniper' started operating on December 13, 2001 and at first was available for free. After two-and-a-half years a fee was collected. "The popularity of Snip posed a border line for technical capabilities. A moment came when we were no longer able to provide the service for such a number of users," says Tadeusz Kiełbiewski of Snip.
At the moment Snip has more than 110,000 users, who have made more than 5.5 million shots, including 1.9 million successful ones. "It is the number of shots and not the number of users that is important for us, as some users remain inactive," says Kiełbiewski.
The biggest market of auction snipers is the US. Germany is the leader in Europe. "In Europe, Poland can easily compete with the UK for second position. This is because people trust each other in this country, unlike in Russia for example, which has a human potential, but people do not trust each other," says Kiełbiewski.
"We do not have competition in Poland yet, but we realize that it is only a question of a smart mind," says Kiełbiewski. The strongest auction snipers are in the US, with major players including eSnipe, Auction Sniper, and PowerSnipe, the latter being auction sniper online bidding software. "We are absolutely the cheapest in the world," says Kiełbiewski. From July 10 last year Chaos Brothers began collecting a fee for each successful shot, namely zł.0.60 for a shot that wins an auction. Auction Sniper and eSnipe, for example, charge $0.25 if the auctioned product is worth less than $25. PowerSnipe costs $45.99 for a year's access to the software.
Snip was invented by Piotr Tomczyk, an IT student at the time, who is now representing Chaos Brothers, the company behind Snip. 'The sniper' started operating on December 13, 2001 and at first was available for free. After two-and-a-half years a fee was collected. "The popularity of Snip posed a border line for technical capabilities. A moment came when we were no longer able to provide the service for such a number of users," says Tadeusz Kiełbiewski of Snip.
At the moment Snip has more than 110,000 users, who have made more than 5.5 million shots, including 1.9 million successful ones. "It is the number of shots and not the number of users that is important for us, as some users remain inactive," says Kiełbiewski.
The biggest market of auction snipers is the US. Germany is the leader in Europe. "In Europe, Poland can easily compete with the UK for second position. This is because people trust each other in this country, unlike in Russia for example, which has a human potential, but people do not trust each other," says Kiełbiewski.
"We do not have competition in Poland yet, but we realize that it is only a question of a smart mind," says Kiełbiewski. The strongest auction snipers are in the US, with major players including eSnipe, Auction Sniper, and PowerSnipe, the latter being auction sniper online bidding software. "We are absolutely the cheapest in the world," says Kiełbiewski. From July 10 last year Chaos Brothers began collecting a fee for each successful shot, namely zł.0.60 for a shot that wins an auction. Auction Sniper and eSnipe, for example, charge $0.25 if the auctioned product is worth less than $25. PowerSnipe costs $45.99 for a year's access to the software.
