BodegaBid establishes virtual goods exchange, plans to double staffing

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

Lots of people love the games on social media sites like Facebook's Mafia or Farmville. So much so that gamers are usually willing to spend a few bucks for virtual goods. But what do you do when you're done playing and all you have is a few bucks worth of nada? BodegaBid thinks it has the answer.

The 3-year-old startup has created a secondary website for Facebook game trading where gamers can trade and sell virtual goods and recoup some of their money. The website launched out of downtown Ann Arbor in July and is about to announce some new partners for iPhone games. BodegaBid was also recently named "One of the Most Promising Top 10 Early Stage Internet Start Ups" by TiECON Midwest 2010.

"The growth of virtual goods and currency is huge," says Mark Sendo, founder and CEO of BodegaBid, adding the average gamer spends $22 on virtual goods for these games. "When people are done playing the game they have nothing. I think there is a market for these goods."

BodegaBid now employs seven people, five interns, and a few independent contractors. It expects to add 15 positions over the next year as the website grows in popularity. Sendo is working to move the new website's traffic from a few hundred people right now to 100,000 daily users within the next year.

"We're going to be growing quite a bit," Sendo says.

Source: Mark Sendo, founder and CEO of BodegaBid
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.