business-plan[Please, before downvoting: If this is the wrong place to post such a question, please refer me to the right one and I will delete this one here!]
Ebay is a mediator and earns his money getting a certain percentage of the sale and other things.
It’s a marketplace where buyers and sellers come together.
My question: How to get started with this kind of service platform? For example we already have the technical stuff in place, hosting and a production ready web platform. At the beginning the platform is empty, no offers and therefore no buyers.
When I would see a platform, that only offers two things for example, I would not place my offer there, because the probability that someone will buy is very low.
How to push the platform in order to bring more buyers and sellers together? How did Ebay do it?
Anything that requires a network effect to become useful is a challenge to get started. Facebook, AirBnB, even Stack Exchange faced the same challenge of how to start when both the chicken and the egg need to come first. I would recommend researching the topic of network effect to get some ideas. Here is one such link to get you started. All about Network Effects
As I hear from sales guys, the advice to get into a new market segment is to start with a very specific target audience. Think about whom you want to serve precisely. Understand their needs, make them happy so they will return and recommend your platform further. Give your platform a specific appearance which makes it interesting for your specific target audience.
Don't try to compete with big marketplaces, don't offer just everything, trying desperately to attract a broad range of people.
There are many sales guides out there, more or less boiling down to the same. Maybe have a look at this one.
Once you understand your target audience and have a solid customer base, then you might grow into different market segments.
Agreeing with the other answers, I have also seen similar success in focusing on your local market. It’s like tareq’s answer to focus on a niche. For example Facebook started as a Harvard-only students site, then expanded to a curated list of colleges, then all colleges, then the public.
More than just gaining traction, this gives you something bite-sized to focus on, especially since you know your local market better than anyone doing the same thing.
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