Contests2Win Launches Reverse Auction Portal

Contests2win has launched a reverse auction portal called Kam Se Kam Se Kam Bid, which they are calling K3B. Might have something to with increasing the recall of the name, given that the shortened name of a Bollywood movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam – K3G – was quite popular. Not sure if the movie was popular, though. They’ve chosen http://www.k3b.in as the domain, and also blocked http://www.k3b.co.in, given that .org, .net and .com were booked (I just checked). Interestingly, k3b.mobi is available, so no plans for mobilizing? No one has won yet, but that should change, I guess. Bids have been made today…
It seems to be possible to bid using any c2w id (try a common name and see for yourself), without requiring a password, and no mail confirming a bid either…not that you would like to use someone else’s ID. The whole idea behind the site, according to the release we received, is to ease the process of bidding in reverse auctions by taking credit card verification out of the picture. I think it’s just a full fledged marketing portal with freebies. The involvement via bidding should increase recall of the product, so it seems good from a marketers standpoint. From the users perspective – I’m not so sure…to bid the lowest, I would ideally have to be the first to bid, so what’s the use of trying to bid if someone else has already done that?
Correction: The lowest unique bid wins, so you effectively cancel someone elses bid by bidding the same amount, though you can’t see their bid. I just got an email informing me that someone else bid the same as me, and cancelled my bid. Also, there’s a limit of 5 bids per person

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