E-commerce : Do you Happen to Know Ether ?

Yesterday, in my Prosper note (sorry, it was in French), I mentioned that there was a general trend to enable consumers to directly sell on the web whatever they have to offer, be it money, goods, services, knowledge, business relationships, etc...

Reading that very note, a friend of mine had the kindness to introduce me to Ether.com another very interesting website and concept that I did not happen to know : whereas Prosper provides a platform for people to lend money to other people, Ether provides a platform for people to sell whatever advise and knowledge they may have, this on the telephone. To cut a long story short, anyone can now sell  what they have to say thanks to Ether !

As Ether puts it, geeks will for example sell computer help from their dorm rooms for $20 per phone call. Specialty bloggers will sell in-depth reports for $50 per document. Nutritionists will counsel distant clients for $80 per 50-minute phone session. The web will come alive and aloud, with anyone who has something valuable to say able to sell it to the person in the world who most needs it right now.

In this emerging world of online services, the key drivers become intellectual capital – what you have to say – and time. At the end of the day, time seems to be the most valuable "thing" of them all. Finally there's a way to value it – literally. You can sell it when you want and any which way you want: one-to-one, one-to-many, one-to-the-highest-bidder, even in recorded form. Where you're from or who you know won't matter – just what you know. A master carpenter retired in Florida will be able to monetize decades of wisdom by offering house-building advice whenever the phone rings – and do so from his fishing boat in Key Biscayne. You can be a parent at home with three kids and still offer what you have to say. And it'll be judged not by your boss but by your customers, because you'll be, after all, your own boss.

Practically, once you have created your account and your profile, people may call you thanks to a toll free number (VoIP) to buy your expertise, but they also need to get an Ether account (works like Skype actually). And the service is now available in over 22 countries !

My Take : damn interesting concept-wise ! I'm intrigued to see how it can practically work businesswise, how a John Doe would want to contact and pay another John Doe who argues to be an expert in such and such field.

As for the simplicity of the service, for the sake of testing their interface (I really don't expect to handle any call, my advise are today free of charge for my friends), I was able to easily set up my Ether account and the blue button on the upper left hand side of this blog,"Call Me", is it.

Comments

[ouriel]

totally with you on that one. Ether is a killer model.

[Paul]

Hi Michel
I can see this idea working well for people that need "quick advice" on demand over the phone. For more complicated things that will need longer to explain, im just thinking that a phone call is very "finite", and that its very often much better to have some form of document that you can refer to in the future.
Perhaps people will take notes during the phonecalls ? :o)

Paul

[Michel de Guilhermier]

Well, it's the whole concept that I'd like to see working in "real life"!