DealDash
Type of site
Private
FoundedFebruary 22, 2009 (2009-02-22)
Headquarters
United States and Finland
Area servedUnited States
Founder(s)William Wolfram
CEOMark Streich[1][2][3][4][5]
IndustryE-commerce
ProductsOnline bidding-fee auction with "Buy It Now" option
Employees65
URLwww.dealdash.com
Users8 million

DealDash is a company that operates an online auction and shopping platform. It was founded in 2009, and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The company's platform allows users to bid on and purchase a variety of products, including electronics, home goods, and gift cards.

DealDash auctions typically start at a low price and users can place bids to try to win the auction. If a user is the highest bidder when the auction ends, they win the item and pay the final auction price, which is typically lower than the retail price of the item. DealDash also offers a "Buy It Now" option, which allows users to purchase items at a fixed price without participating in an auction.

DealDash's own terms of service tell users that they are likely to spend more than the retail cost for products and are unlikely to save money using the site.

History

DealDash was founded in 2009 by William Wolfram,[6][7] a 16-year-old Finnish entrepreneur,[8] who had lost $20 bidding unsuccessfully for a MacBook on an earlier penny auction site.[8] Wolfram had generated approximately $500,000 in affiliate sales a year earlier buying popular YouTube videos for $50, borrowed from his mother, then collecting revenue from affiliate marketing links he would add.[8] He used the money he had saved to start DealDash.[8]

The company's business model, as with prior sites, is that customers enter into bidding, where they pay for each bid on an item, regardless of whether they succeed or not. Each bid marginally increases the price of the item until the end of the auction, at which point the item is sold to the final bidder.[9] DealDash differs from predecessors mainly in that losing bidders are given an option to apply money they had spent unsuccessfully bidding on an item towards purchasing the item at a posted retail price.[8][10]

DealDash obtained early financing from a youth program of Tekes, a Finnish public funding agency.[11] It later raised approximately $1.5 to $2 million in venture financing from the Chief Executive Officers of Rovio Entertainment (publisher of Angry Birds) and Carbonite.[8][12] The company grew quickly, quadrupling its revenue yearly for its first three years. As of early 2012 it was earning $1 million profits on $44 million revenue.[8] By 2013 it had 67 employees, yearly revenues approaching $100 million,[13] and was ranked as Finland's second-most visible startup based on attention from media, bloggers, influencers, and users.[14] According to Socialbakers, DealDash was the most talked about brand on Facebook's "People Talking About This" during a period in May 2013,[15][16] and had the highest engagement rate that September.[17]

In 2013, when Wolfram was still 20 years old, DealDash moved its headquarters from Helsinki, Finland, to Minneapolis, Minnesota.[8] In August of that year, the company also created the site DealDashReviewed.com to house and aggregate reviews and testimonials from their customers.[18][19]

Business model

DealDash, like other auction sites, has been described as a gamified approach to e-commerce.[20] To participate, registered bidders first buy "bids" priced at $0.60 each, that they may spend bidding on auctions.[21][22] Standard auctions begin with an opening price of $0.00, with every bid placed increasing the price by $0.01 and removing one paid "bid credit" from the user's balance. Bidders may choose to place single bids, by manually clicking the bid button, or through an automatic bidding tool called the "BidBuddy".[23][24] An auction clock restarts from a maximum of 10–30 seconds, depending on the auction, every time a bid is placed. If no new bids are placed before the clock runs out, the last and highest bidder is declared the winner of the auction.[20][23]

Criticism

DealDash has been criticized for offering poor value to customers and for making disclosures only in fine print.[10]

Penny auction sites, including DealDash specifically, have often been criticized for failing to disclose or include the cost of bids in what customers actually spend in total to win a product. In a conventional auction, bids are based on prices that participants are willing to pay, with the item sold to the final bidder within a set period that bids the highest price. This usually allocates the item to the person who is willing to pay the most. By contrast, penny auctions award items to parties that are persistent or lucky enough to place the final bid, with money raised primarily from the cost of bidding rather than the final price of the item. In most cases, users spend substantial sums of money without winning anything. DealDash and others have been compared to gambling by consumer groups.[25][9]

According to Consumer Reports, the "buy it now" prices can be significantly higher than the same products on Amazon.com.[25] Unsuccessful bidders not using the option lose the value of the bids placed. A company spokesperson says DealDash generates significant business from bidders who choose to buy items after losing, with hundreds of orders processed daily.[26]

Consumer Reports also reported that many "luxury" brands touted on Deal Dash are non-existent beyond the website and their trademarks are registered by the owner of DealDash, through another company that he is associated with, namely Galton Voysey.[27]

Consumer organization Truth in Advertising reported that a DealDash television commercial shows "Roseanna" winning a $349 KitchenAid stand mixer for "less than $25". Small print explains she bid 761 times on that mixer, which cost her over $456, plus the $25 "price" she won it for. This means she paid closer to $481 – well over the stated $349 retail price.[28] Both Truth in Advertising and Consumer Reports noted that DealDash's own terms of service tell users that they are likely to spend more than the retail cost for products and are unlikely to save money using the site.[25][28] Due to this – and to the allegedly premium products on offer being generic items manufactured by companies with links to Wolfram – DealDash faced a false-advertising class-action lawsuit in 2017.[29][30][28][31] Eight months later, the lawsuit was dismissed.[28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Bid on online auctions and save. All auctions start at $0 with no minimum reserve. Everything must go! DealDash is the fair and honest bidding site".
  2. ↑ "Stocks". Bloomberg News.
  3. ↑ "Verkkohuutokauppa DealDash otti ison loikan".
  4. ↑ "DealDash on USA:ssa menestyvä suomalainen verkkokauppayhtiö" (in Finnish). March 24, 2017. Archived from the original on July 19, 2018.
  5. ↑ "DealDash Oyj - Y-tunnus: 2290026-1 - Yritystiedot, taloustiedot, päättäjät & hallituksen jäsenet".
  6. ↑ "Vuoden Kasvaja: kasvu 430 prosenttia 34 miljoonaan". Kauppalehti. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Huikea kasvupyrähdys: 20-vuotias yrittäjä takoi 31 miljoonaa euroa". Talouselämä. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hamish McKenzie (March 21, 2013). "This 20-year-old's three-year-old startup did $44M in revenue last year". PandoDaily.
  9. 1 2 Mayer, Caroline (May 12, 2014). "Are Penny Auction Sites Seen on TV For Real?". Next Avenue. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  10. 1 2 "DealDash Sees Explosion Of Growth". ArcticStartup. October 21, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Different Types of Tekes Financing – With William Wolfram of DealDash". ArcticStartup. March 16, 2012.
  12. ↑ Vilpponen, Antti (January 11, 2012). "DealDash Recruiting Talent With Strong Growth And $1M Investment". ArcticStartup. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  13. ↑ Jo Best (November 20, 2013). "Top tips for startups from the companies that got funding, and the VCs ready to invest". ZDNet.
  14. ↑ Nick Clayton (January 24, 2013). "Finland's Top 100 Startups". Wall Street Journal.
  15. ↑ "Obscure Direct Response Brands Dominate Facebook Chatter". Adweek. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Suomalaisbrändit Fb:ssä: Nokian perässä 2 startupia". Kauppalehti. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  17. ↑ David Cohen (September 12, 2013). "Walmart Still Top U.S. Brand On Facebook For August; DealDash Leads Post Engagement Rate". Adweek.
  18. ↑ "DealDash Reviews". DealDash Reviews. DealDash. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  19. ↑ "DealDashReviewed.com WhoIs". DomainTools. DomainTools. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  20. 1 2 Anderson, Greg (October 24, 2011). "DealDash Sees Explosion Of Growth". ArcticStartup. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Haluatko iPadin 13,66 dollarilla? Tällä tavalla syntyi veret seisauttava kasvutarina". Talouselämä. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  22. ↑ "DealDash: How Does it Work?". DealDash. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
  23. 1 2 "Deal Dash - Frequently Asked Questions". DealDash. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  24. ↑ "DealDash terms of use". Retrieved December 9, 2013.
  25. 1 2 3 Giorgianni, Anthony (June 30, 2014). "Bidding on penny auction sites is risky". Consumer Reports. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  26. ↑ Vilpponen, Antti (May 5, 2011). "Interview With William Wolfram, CEO of DealDash". ArcticStartup. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  27. ↑ "Customer Accuses DealDash of Selling "Cheap, Generic" Products Disguised as Independent Luxury Brands".
  28. 1 2 3 4 "DealDash.com". Truth In Advertising. November 1, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Is DealDash a bargain penny auction site or a "perverse lottery"?". NBC News. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  30. ↑ Moak, Bill. "Penny auction sites: The house always wins". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  31. ↑ "Class Calls Penny Auction Site DealDash a Scam". www.courthousenews.com. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
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