Ever considered setting up an agency? Part II

[MissWolf]

When talking to SPs about it I would suggest you don't start with "I asked this question on UK Punting and they suggested I ask you lot on SAAFE.".

Spoilsport 

[maxeyate]

You named this thread "Ever considered setting up an agency? "Part II""  as in a continuation of the threads you linked to but as a result of the reaction you have received you are now backtracking.

What you can't grasp is what a punter says on this subject is irrelevant, punters will look anywhere for escorts but escorts are selective about where they advertise.

I completely agree that in hindsight, the name I have the thread was misleading and I apologise for this.

I agree with the point about the fact that “punters look anywhere for escorts”, but I think there is a flip side to this coin. Especially now, with recession-style sentiment spread through a variety of areas of consumer spending, sex services seem to have also taken a hit. I punt at a good frequency, and like to have a chat with the ladies about how things are going. Quite a few seem to note less clients, “quieter” behaviour. No golden era stuff. Obviously, popular ladies will always be popular. I am talking averages here.

As this is their bread and butter, no client is “too many” in this environment. Many girls want more clients, so a platform able to attract more men or increase conversion rate from viewing a profile to booking, caters towards their interests very strongly. I have heard ladies saying this as well. So, ladies are interested in platforms where they have more outreach/ higher conversion rates, which is dependent on our punting community. These types of platforms will always be two-sided from the point of view of clients and it is important to cater to both.

It’s a double whammy.

[maxeyate]

This is the thing, look how much has been pumped into vivastreet and it's still not as popular.
The AW platform is still quite amateur looking and the app isn't great imo, but thats probably on purpose so it draws less attention.
You have to think as well, why would girls choose a brand new site with no traffic? Most reasons would end up in a nightmare situation for you....scammers, traffickers etc

Many people speak about Vivastreet. Quite a few people find it hard to use because for the untrained eye, getting scammed is the easiest thing to happen there. It’s with this platform that one can check whether someone reviewed a lady, get some opinions on a lady and so on. Majority of the punting community (80%+ I would guess) do not have access to UKP. Imagine what type of experiences those clients have with Viva. And that is a platform that does not care about the punter at all. And that’s the experience of the majority, I would assume.

I think a lot has to do with the platform’s philosophy. Scam agencies, garbage directories all have one aim - get as much money from ladies as possible, and to do that they have to attract as many punters as possible, by any means necessary. AdultWork have proven to be a strong leader in the space because they understand that allowing loads of dirt to happen, like fake profile creation en masse, letting traffickers thrive etc ultimately does a disservice to the platform from the reputation standpoint.

As to the traffic point, you are 100% correct. Which leads into why you need the opinion of product users when creating a product, because if the product isn’t interesting to a user, you won’t receive traffic and so ladies will not be interested in signing up, exactly because it will be “another garbage ad platform”.

[maxeyate]

… and offering any serious competition would require a great deal of determination, knowledge and talent - rather more, I would suggest than that gleaned from one meeting.

Cannot disagree.

[daviemac]

so a platform able to attract more men or increase conversion rate from viewing a profile to booking, caters towards their interests very strongly. I have heard ladies saying this as well. So, ladies are interested in platforms where they have more outreach/ higher conversion rates, which is dependent on our punting community. These types of platforms will always be two-sided from the point of view of clients and it is important to cater to both.

What you are suggesting already exists and I've already told you what it is. It's a site that escorts advertise on, punters book through, there is no limit to the chat between punters and escorts either on the open forum or by private chat.

Go and have a look. You are trying to reinvent the wheel and this is not the site to do it on.

[Cheshuk]

Another member posted about how I am incompetent to run a platform because I haven’t ran one. I agree that I am less competent than a person who is in the position that they have a platform, but I have experience with other projects that have seen fair success. Regarding housing laws etc, I am not a pimp. I don’t need them.

If you do actually have time, resources and the capability, as others have said theres no gap in the market for escort listing platforms.

However there genuinely is for what seeking used to be and contributed to its success, an arrangement site, before it tried to rebrand as a regular dating site and started banning for what was initially encouraged. Maybe it was regulatory pressure that made them cave, I don't know as can't see how it made sense from a business perspective with so many dating sites already. Maybe turn your attention there, theres a gap in the market & plenty of people longing for a platform like that, where you can discuss more honest & openly what your looking for, without 100 a month membership, which they're likely able to charge due to a lack of competition.

[mr.bluesky]

That hole he's digging seems to be getting deeper and deeper 

[maxeyate]

What you are suggesting already exists and I've already told you what it is. It's a site that escorts advertise on, punters book through, there is no limit to the chat between punters and escorts either on the open forum or by private chat.

I don’t want to continue arguing because it is fruitless and isn’t the aim of UKP. I just want to clarify that in my posts, the only thing I said I had ideas was an advertising platform. Yes, advertising platforms already exist, and a lot of them - most of them garbage. Apart from this, I haven’t described a single bit of the platform, so I am not quite sure where you have read my intentions to create something as you described above (which isn’t anything to do with my idea of interest, for clarification). As to the forum you directed me to - which suits the description above, so I assume maybe there is a bit of confusion? - thank you for the recommendation. I will take a look.

Go and have a look. You are trying to reinvent the wheel and this is not the site to do it on.

With reinventing the wheel, potentially you may be correct. Otherwise, understood that discussions about potential ad platforms are not to be had on UKP.

[daviemac]

I don’t want to continue arguing because it is fruitless and isn’t the aim of UKP. I just want to clarify that in my posts, the only thing I said I had ideas was an advertising platform. Yes, advertising platforms already exist, and a lot of them - most of them garbage. Apart from this, I haven’t described a single bit of the platform, so I am not quite sure where you have read my intentions to create something as you described above (which isn’t anything to do with my idea of interest, for clarification). As to the forum you directed me to - which suits the description above, so I assume maybe there is a bit of confusion? - thank you for the recommendation. I will take a look.

With reinventing the wheel, potentially you may be correct. Otherwise, understood that discussions about potential ad platforms are not to be had on UKP.

So you are wanting to start an advertising platform where escorts can advertise and punters can book them through, with the added bonus of unfettered communication between escorts and punters, freedom to flirt or whatever they like, is that correct?

[big-al93]

So you are wanting to start an advertising platform where escorts can advertise and punters can book them through, with the added bonus of unfettered communication between escorts and punters, freedom to flirt or whatever they like, is that correct?

Sounds like EH, except they don't have to pay for advertising on there. But I guess that was your point DM.

[daviemac]

Sounds like EH, except they don't have to pay for advertising on there. But I guess that was your point DM.

I told him about EH yesterday and I've told him that what he's thinking of doing already exists but he hasn't bother to research it.

I would have thought that anyone wanting to start a new venture would thoroughly research the market and study any competition that they were made aware of, that's just me though the OP obviously thinks differently. 

[maxeyate]

So you are wanting to start an advertising platform where escorts can advertise and punters can book them through, with the added bonus of unfettered communication between escorts and punters, freedom to flirt or whatever they like, is that correct?

Not correct at all and I am failing to understand where exactly this is coming from. That is what I am trying to explain. Hope that makes sense.

[MissWolf]

Not correct at all and I am failing to understand where exactly this is coming from. That is what I am trying to explain. Hope that makes sense.

OK I'm going to ask

So you want to start an advertising platform that has chat and interaction between clients and escorts, is that right?

Are you expecting or planning for this to rival or be a viable alternative to AW?

If so I have some questions 

[maxeyate]

OK I'm going to ask

So you want to start an advertising platform that has chat and interaction between clients and escorts, is that right?

Are you expecting or planning for this to rival or be a viable alternative to AW?

If so I have some questions 

In the sense that any advertising platform has chat functionality, of course. Second question answer:yes. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. I have a once every 12 hour reply limit and will reply ASAP. I don’t think it’s appropriate to reply here as I will be done for touting, something I don’t want happening because I am not one. Hope to hear from you.

[daviemac]

In the sense that any advertising platform has chat functionality, of course. Second question answer:yes. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. I have a once every 12 hour reply limit and will reply ASAP. I don’t think it’s appropriate to reply here as I will be done for touting, something I don’t want happening because I am not one. Hope to hear from you.

I don't know how many times the rules of this site have to be pointed out to you but you are determined to ignore them.

So anyway if it isn't an advertising platform you want to start it is in fact as per the thread title, an agency.

[Southernbloke]

For Christ sake stop digging OP . You are not coming across well at all! Drop the subject

[cunningman]

So anyway if it isn't an advertising platform you want to start it is in fact as per the thread title, an agency.

It seems to me unclear whether he wants to have an agency - which I guess does some organising and takes a cut from each punt - or a platform, which is more likely funded by advertising, charging SPs and/or SSs, and has no direct interest in whether there are deals.  I guess that's why AW is a bit hybrid in terms of doing the videos, calls, and RBs.

I suspect that many of us have looked at the AW site and thought 'I can do much better than that' but one thing I find interesting is that I used to see SQLServer load-related error reports and haven't for a long time - but I've seen occassional Cloudflare errors.  That a modern SQLServer deployment is easily fast enough if its just doing search is not surprising, especially if they have a cache in front of identical queries and can predictably preload - but the use of cloudflare for static CDN is interesting.  How come Cloudflare allow it?  Some of the content is pretty explicit.

I do think there is a discussion to be had around 'if someone were to try to compete with AW - what would it take?'.  Is it even a tech issue, or a regulatory and payment processing and moderation issue?  Writing a performant website is probably not the biggest headache, IMO.

[RandomGuy99]

It seems to me unclear whether he wants to have an agency - which I guess does some organising and takes a cut from each punt - or a platform, which is more likely funded by advertising, charging SPs and/or SSs, and has no direct interest in whether there are deals.  I guess that's why AW is a bit hybrid in terms of doing the videos, calls, and RBs.

I suspect that many of us have looked at the AW site and thought 'I can do much better than that' but one thing I find interesting is that I used to see SQLServer load-related error reports and haven't for a long time - but I've seen occassional Cloudflare errors.  That a modern SQLServer deployment is easily fast enough if its just doing search is not surprising, especially if they have a cache in front of identical queries and can predictably preload - but the use of cloudflare for static CDN is interesting.  How come Cloudflare allow it?  Some of the content is pretty explicit.

I do think there is a discussion to be had around 'if someone were to try to compete with AW - what would it take?'.  Is it even a tech issue, or a regulatory and payment processing and moderation issue?  Writing a performant website is probably not the biggest headache, IMO.

Cloudfare provide CDN for lots of porn sites. It's how they make their money.

[MissWolf]

In the sense that any advertising platform has chat functionality, of course. Second question answer:yes. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. I have a once every 12 hour reply limit and will reply ASAP. I don’t think it’s appropriate to reply here as I will be done for touting, something I don’t want happening because I am not one. Hope to hear from you.

I dont have PM rights on here and its a banning offence to ask for PM's so all my conversations are done on the open forum

So this platform
Have you researched appropriate names for it
Looked at domain names that are available etc
How are you going to finance this platform to get it off the ground
What staff are you going to need, or are you part of a group who have all the knowledge you need between you
Are you charging the escorts to advertise and if so how are you going to verify their identity and take payments etc
Have you looked into how you will take payments and what provider you will use as many likevisa won't support your business
You will need all your data control and GDPR in place
How are you going to make your platform more attractive than AW to escorts (I know you think you need punters to be well catered for but if you don't make it work for the escort there will be no point in it exsisting)

That's a few to start

[daviemac]

I do think there is a discussion to be had around 'if someone were to try to compete with AW - what would it take?'.  Is it even a tech issue, or a regulatory and payment processing and moderation issue?  Writing a performant website is probably not the biggest headache, IMO.

You seem to forget this site is here to benefit punters, not to assist wannabe pimps or those looking to make money from escorts in any shape or form.

1 Site ethos/mission
This Forum puts the interests of Punters first through the sharing of Reviews. The Forum does not endorse or promote any service provider or any other site. This site is totally independent. No favouritism, no special treatment, no vested interests and no pandering to service providers. Members are expected to post Reviews, although there is no formal quota (see rule 27). General chat relating to Punting is allowed on the appropriate Board.

2 Service Providers
This site allows service providers to be members, but zero tolerance for touting, flirting, attention-seeking and negative attitude toward punters. Service providers must respect the ethos of the site. This site is neither a chat platform between clients and service providers nor a support site for service providers. All service providers / non-punters must reveal their working identities - no 'anonymous WGs'.

3 Touting
Zero tolerance for touting / advertising. You must disclose any link that may be seen as biased if you're not just a customer. Sharing info must be for the benefit of other punters and not promote the business of others.

As already stated there is a site that isn't AW where escorts can advertise and punters can not only book but chat as much as they like, there are also various other advertising platforms for escort to use as well as agencies they could join, they don't need us to be finding any others for them.

From a punters point of view to aid that on here there's an 'Escort and massage profile sites list' here - https://www.ukpunting.com/index.php?topic=279443.0

[daviemac]

I dont have PM rights on here and its a banning offence to ask for PM's so all my conversations are done on the open forum

I would leave it at that and just let him ponder the points you have raised, I'm getting a bit tired of pointing the rules out.

[MissWolf]

I would leave it at that and just let him ponder the points you have raised, I'm getting a bit tired of pointing the rules out.

Indeed I will, he's not the smartest cookie tbh 

[Hardman123]

I’d more than happily become a partner. I can ‘audition’ all the girls and do quality checks regularly. Oh shit. I sound like a pimp now… 

[daviemac]

I’d more than happily become a partner. I can ‘audition’ all the girls and do quality checks regularly. Oh shit. I sound like a pimp now… 

Says a lot about you.

[Lou2019]

I’d more than happily become a partner. I can ‘audition’ all the girls and do quality checks regularly. Oh shit. I sound like a pimp now… 

 

[Hardman123]

Says a lot about you.

Thanks. I care what you think about me.

[bob_mm]

I dont have PM rights on here and its a banning offence to ask for PM's so all my conversations are done on the open forum
...
That's a few to start

Wow, SPs not allowed. Didn't know the rules that well.

[daviemac]

Thanks. I care what you think about me.

After 71 replies you come out with the typical pimp attitude, looking for freebies.

[daviemac]

Wow, SPs not allowed. Didn't know the rules that well.

Not sure what you mean by that, I think you are misunderstanding both the rules and what MissWolf said.

[Hardman123]

After 71 replies you come out with the typical pimp attitude, looking for freebies.

Okay oh powerful daviemac. Your judgement is oh so important to me and every other member with a sense of humour. Hope you don’t fall off your metaphorical ivory tower

[maxeyate]

I dont have PM rights on here and its a banning offence to ask for PM's so all my conversations are done on the open forum

So this platform
Have you researched appropriate names for it
Looked at domain names that are available etc
How are you going to finance this platform to get it off the ground
What staff are you going to need, or are you part of a group who have all the knowledge you need between you
Are you charging the escorts to advertise and if so how are you going to verify their identity and take payments etc
Have you looked into how you will take payments and what provider you will use as many likevisa won't support your business
You will need all your data control and GDPR in place
How are you going to make your platform more attractive than AW to escorts (I know you think you need punters to be well catered for but if you don't make it work for the escort there will be no point in it exsisting)

That's a few to start

I appreciate the response and understand you can’t PM, but it is nice to hear from an SP. I have taken that into consideration, and more. I won’t talk about any of this as it goes against platform guidelines and I have been warned repeatedly not to do so.

[daviemac]

Okay oh powerful daviemac. Your judgement is oh so important to me and every other member with a sense of humour. Hope you don’t fall off your metaphorical ivory tower

It must be on your mind, you were the only one who cane out with it which in my opinion says a lot about you.

If you want to take offence at that then that's your problem.

[Hardman123]

It must be on your mind, you were the only one who cane out with it which in my opinion says a lot about you.

If you want to take offence at that then that's your problem.

Okay sir. Whatever you say. Your judgement is divine. I will ponder deeply on what you think my sarcastic pimp comment says about me.

Time for some serious introspection because daviemac is trying to offend me… 

[daviemac]

Okay sir. Whatever you say. Your judgement is divine. I will ponder deeply on what you think my sarcastic pimp comment says about me.

Time for some serious introspection because daviemac is trying to offend me… 

A very good idea, funny how it was only you who thought of the getting freebies angle.

You made the statement you made I said it says a lot about you, you could have left it there but for some reason you want to turn it into something it doesn't need to be, if I can give you a bit of advice, don't.

Leave it here.

[Colston36]

I dont have PM rights on here and its a banning offence to ask for PM's so all my conversations are done on the open forum

So this platform
Have you researched appropriate names for it
Looked at domain names that are available etc
How are you going to finance this platform to get it off the ground
What staff are you going to need, or are you part of a group who have all the knowledge you need between you
Are you charging the escorts to advertise and if so how are you going to verify their identity and take payments etc
Have you looked into how you will take payments and what provider you will use as many likevisa won't support your business
You will need all your data control and GDPR in place
How are you going to make your platform more attractive than AW to escorts (I know you think you need punters to be well catered for but if you don't make it work for the escort there will be no point in it exsisting)

That's a few to start

As usual sound sense from the Queen of the Lair

[Head1]

Wow, SPs not allowed. Didn't know the rules that well.

2 Service Providers
This site allows service providers to be members, but zero tolerance for touting, flirting, attention-seeking and negative attitude toward punters. Service providers must respect the ethos of the site. This site is neither a chat platform between clients and service providers nor a support site for service providers. All service providers / non-punters must reveal their working identities - no 'anonymous WGs'.

Everyone should have taken time out to read the site rules  :thumbs-up:

https://www.ukpunting.com/index.php?topic=252680.0

[marc_hotsteppa]

OP, think carefully about how much money you THINK you will need to start a venture that will rival something like AW.

When you've arrived at that number, multiply it by at least 50.

If you haven't got that kind of financing behind you, don't bother.

For context;

Many years ago in the early 00s someone had an idea to create a website called 'scrantastic' and registered the domain name without doing any proper research.  They paid for the site for a year and approached local take-aways asking if they'd be interested in being featured on the website and some of them did, but not many.  The months passed quickly and the site died a death as the two people involved were doing this as a side hustle and didn't have the time and resources or money behind them to make it work.

If they had bothered to do their research they'd have seen that Just Eat, although in its infancy had already done what they were trying to do and a lot better, with 5 people who founded it having all the expertise needed between them which made it expand rapidly. 

Things like this need proper planning, research and a fuckload of money to get it off the ground properly AND to keep it growing.

[bob_mm]

OP, think carefully about how much money you THINK you will need to start a venture that will rival something like AW.

When you've arrived at that number, multiply it by at least 50.

If you haven't got that kind of financing behind you, don't bother.

Things like this need proper planning, research and a fuckload of money to get it off the ground properly AND to keep it growing.

Interesting. What will OP have to say to this, I imagine the scope of this in the hundreds of thousands.

[maxeyate]

Things like this need proper planning, research and a fuckload of money to get it off the ground properly AND to keep it growing.

I have budgeted project needs within a certain scope. I may readjust, but the budget suits me. Thanks for worrying though. Obviously, when I found out about UKP and came here, I came prepared and not just with idea. I have access to human capital, budget, a bit of know-how. The piece lacking is really customer discovery/ CustDev.

[MissWolf]

I have budgeted project needs within a certain scope. I may readjust, but the budget suits me. Thanks for worrying though. Obviously, when I found out about UKP and came here, I came prepared and not just with idea. I have access to human capital, budget, a bit of know-how. The piece lacking is really customer discovery/ CustDev.

You are not being very bright here, you keep being told it's NOT the customers you have to make the platform work for initially , it's the escorts.

Without them there are no customers

You are a customer according to your 1 review  so surely you know what punters want, read reviews ffs that will also tell you, its not rocket science mate.

Guys want, a decent site that's easy to navigate, has a good and accurate search facility with plenty of options to narrow searching down, they need numbers displayed,  decent pictures and genuine profiles that are not run by a bunch of pimps and are not bait and switch, preferably with profiles across all areas of the UK etc

Now I'm out 

I'd say good luck but I would be lying

[maxeyate]

You are not being very bright here, you keep being told it's NOT the customers you have to make the platform work for initially , it's the escorts.

Without them there are no customers

You are a customer according to your 1 review  so surely you know what punters want, read reviews ffs that will also tell you, its not rocket science mate.

Guys want, a decent site that's easy to navigate, has a good and accurate search facility with plenty of options to narrow searching down, they need numbers displayed,  decent pictures and genuine profiles that are not run by a bunch of pimps and are not bait and switch, preferably with profiles across all areas of the UK etc

I'd say good luck but I would be lying

You can think I am not being bright. I don’t think comments like this are valuable. Any marketplace style platform has to cater to both. Period. What “works” for majority of ladies is sites that give work I.e have normal men booking meetings in a stable manner. One can make a purely SP-centric platform, with many things heavily benefitting SP’s, but punters will not use this, for reasons such as requiring breaking anonymity and so on. So, you DO have to take into account what punters want as well. As I said, the vast majority of SP’s use websites that provide client traffic. That is what matters, not little quirks and features, that is secondary. And you can’t have client traffic without catering to the client.

The ideal state of affairs for a platform you describe well. The intricacies of how this is achieved, however, is where the competitive advantage lies. Many platforms may try to fight pumps, but the way they approach these fights can be different, giving different results and so different success rates of the platforms. Once you start thinking about how to beat these problems, it is interesting to hear from our community/knowledgeable people in the space whether this is a viable approach for the community and is plausible in execution.

Knowing which battles you fight is easy, knowing what approach to take in these battles is the art.

[jesse4585]

You can think I am not being bright. I don’t think comments like this are valuable. Any marketplace style platform has to cater to both. Period.   ...

Miss Wolf isn't an idiot. She know that.  What you seem to be having trouble grasping is that for a AW competitor , it's appealing to WGs that's going to be the challenge.
Even 15 years back when books on the platform business model were much scarcer than they are now, it was well known that often attracting one of the two populations you need for a two sided platform will be much harder than the other.

Like others have already said, punters like to punt.  To get punters you'd just need 1) Some wording to imply you're lasses are better vetted than those on kommons  & viva. 2) A better UX than AW, which should be easy even with a 10k budget. 

Much harder to get WGs to join your platform especially if it needs vetting - Even AW lost lots of WG when it started tightening it's vetting, and it benefits from strong ecosystem & network effects that a newcommer won't have.   I could give you a few pointers on how to approach the WG challenge, but I think Davie would not like to see that, unless maybe you contribute a dozen or so reviews first...

[RandomGuy99]

It comes down to "Why would an SP choose to list themselves on your platform instead of another one?"

Answer that one and you might have a chance and also what stops the competitors finding out about your unique feature and doing it on their platform to wipe you out?

[daviemac]

It comes down to "Why would an SP choose to list themselves on your platform instead of another one?"

Answer that one and you might have a chance and also what stops the competitors finding out about your unique feature and doing it on their platform to wipe you out?

He's moving the goalposts with every answer he doesn't want to hear, he titled the thread setting up an agency but following the reaction he got to being a pimp he changed to wanting an advertising platform where escorts and punters can interact, when he was told one of those already existed he changed his mind again claiming he didn't want that he wants to challenge AW.   

[Puntiff Sulyvahn]

Knowing which battles you fight is easy, knowing what approach to take in these battles is the art.

Wow, truly the Sun Tzu of the punting community

The simplest approach is the best approach - "Flank em, then spank em"

[RandomGuy99]

He's moving the goalposts with every answer he doesn't want to hear, he titled the thread setting up an agency but following the reaction he got to being a pimp he changed to wanting an advertising platform where escorts and punters can interact, when he was told one of those already existed he changed his mind again claiming he didn't want that he wants to challenge AW.   

I hope he has deep pockets.

AW has cornered the market.  It would be difficult to compete against them. You could only win by offering more features for less and SSs would still use AW as it's the best known. You'd have to offer exclusive deals to some very well known SPs to have only be available on your platform and even that wouldn't shift the traffic from AW as the SPs make most of their money from bookings not content sales.

You could spend a lot of money trying to beat AW and fail.

Gardening sounds like a more fruitful (see what I did there) retirement pastime.

[maxeyate]

Miss Wolf isn't an idiot. She know that.  What you seem to be having trouble grasping is that for a AW competitor , it's appealing to WGs that's going to be the challenge.

Like others have already said, punters like to punt.  To get punters you'd just need 1) Some wording to imply your lasses are better vetted than those on kommons  & viva. 2) A better UX than AW, which should be easy even with a 10k budget. 

Much harder to get WGs to join your platform especially if it needs vetting - Even AW lost lots of WG when it started tightening it's vetting, and it benefits from strong ecosystem & network effects that a newcommer won't have.   I could give you a few pointers on how to approach the WG challenge, but I think Davie would not like to see that, unless maybe you contribute a dozen or so reviews first...

Good input, understood. I never said or implied Miss Wolf is an idiot. I am not allowed to PM members anymore, so obviously ask moderator beforehand. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts. Maybe I am weighting the emphasis too much on us punters.

[maxeyate]

It comes down to "Why would an SP choose to list themselves on your platform instead of another one?"

Answer that one and you might have a chance and also what stops the competitors finding out about your unique feature and doing it on their platform to wipe you out?

I agree with what it comes down to. I can’t describe this as I will be done for touting, a community rule breach.

Nothing stops competitors finding out and appropriating the feature. What they can’t recreate is philosophy. If you are a commercial machine, interested only in profit, your team being profit-centric etc, you can only get so far. Obviously, if you do things correctly in this space, markings become much tighter than what I assume AW has. For a commercial machine, they have two paths: remove the competitor, either physically or by plagiarising the site, or shifting philosophy. Physical removal carries very understandable risks which not many are ready to take. Plagiarising only works for so long. It becomes a loop of plagiarism —> less money —> plagiarism etc, margins tighten and the only way to readjust is to change philosophy. U-turning on philosophy is notoriously difficult, especially for monopolistic platforms reaping a lot of gains in the space.

[maxeyate]

… he titled the thread setting up an agency but following the reaction he got to being a pimp he changed to wanting an advertising platform where escorts and punters can interact, when he was told one of those already existed he changed his mind again claiming he didn't want that he wants to challenge AW.   

I don’t want to argue but I don’t agree here. My misnaming of the thread, yes. I would urge people to point out where I write something about wanting to create an agency (apart from thread name, which I agree was a mistake) or where I write about a  desire to create a platform where punters and escorts interact.

Point is, I have never said this anywhere in writing. Advertising platform like AW, yes.

[RandomGuy99]

I agree with what it comes down to. I can’t describe this as I will be done for touting, a community rule breach.

Nothing stops competitors finding out and appropriating the feature. What they can’t recreate is philosophy. If you are a commercial machine, interested only in profit, your team being profit-centric etc, you can only get so far. Obviously, if you do things correctly in this space, markings become much tighter than what I assume AW has. For a commercial machine, they have two paths: remove the competitor, either physically or by plagiarising the site, or shifting philosophy. Physical removal carries very understandable risks which not many are ready to take. Plagiarising only works for so long. It becomes a loop of plagiarism —> less money —> plagiarism etc, margins tighten and the only way to readjust is to change philosophy. U-turning on philosophy is notoriously difficult, especially for monopolistic platforms reaping a lot of gains in the space.

Philosophy only counts for some much.

The real differentiators are the amount of good buying/well behaved booking traffic and cost.