Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Is BidRivals Shrinking?

Is BidRivals shrinking? I mean, is it the case that fewer people are joining BidRivals and fewer still are as active as they used to be? The site has shrunk considerably in the past few months to one year. One reason for this could be that BidRivals had an affiliate program that attracted a lot of wrong people - you know, the kind who want to make a quick buck at the expense of others and so used all dishonest methods in the book. BidRivals actually had to cancel a lot of affiliates and its program.

The other reason could be simply be a general slowdown in the penny auction industry. As you know, penny auctions have reached their growth saturation, which means they are no longer as popular as their peak, about a year or so ago. Penny auctions have been a passing fad, with a lot of promise, but new penny auctions just couldn't sustain and didn't realize the investment it would take to be successful.

However, the largest penny auction in the world now, Quibids, remained steady. It is still growing fast and strong.

It is funny because at one stage, when I initially started this blog in the first place, Quibids and BidRivals were neck to neck in terms of bidders, traffic, etc. BidRivals was global, operating in dozens of countries and Quibids was just in the US. You might be tempted to place your bets on BidRivals but you would be so wrong. Quibids has pulled off the rare feat of being successful in the penny auction world (hats off for that, Quibids!)

As a small comparison, look at the Alexa rank of BidRivals. I remember, at its peak, it was around 2000 globally. Today it is 24,000. That is a huge drop in traffic, even though Alexa rank cannot be fully accurate about traffic stats (it is a good estimate in any case).

Do you still bid at BidRivals? Quibids? Other penny auctions? Share your thoughts!