Yerdle
Yerdle is a smartphone app based service for exchanging used goods. Instead of direct trading it is based on the pay it forward principle; User A uploads information on an object them's possessing and wish to give to someone else, User B can then get the object in exchange for credits which are paid to User A. User A can then use these credits to get something else from for example User C (or any other user).
Yerdle transactions are, in difference to for example transactions in The Freecycle Network, not neighbourhood based, instead Yerdle encourages users to send their goods by post to other users.
Registration to the service is free as of December 2014 but only available to US residents. Yerdle has expressed future plans to make it possible to buy credits for use in the service.
Yerdle has announced partnerships with Patagonia and Levi Strauss & Co..
Yerdle is created and managed by a San Francisco based company with the same name.
Criticism
In an article at Salon Andrew Leonard criticizes Yerdle for its use of the word "free", since he finds it effectively a market place where goods can be exchanged. His view is that even though the transactions does not involve conventional currencies, Yerdle is a market place like any, the difference being only that proprietary "credits" are used instead of money. Leonard also scorns Yerdle for announcing its plans to eventually make it possible for users to buy credits for use in the service, effectively making its service similar to any other regular auction site.
See also
- The Freecycle Network
- Streetbank
- Pay it forward
- Sharing economy
- Listia
- Mark Boyle (Moneyless Man)