Livlis: Auctions Made Simple Through Twitter Social Graph

Whether you’re buying or selling, using auction services like eBay (or in Japan, “Yahoo Auction”) could take a lot of work. One service called Livlis labels itself as “social classifieds” could provide users with an alternative way to buy and sell online. It allows users to understand who exactly they’re dealing with through Twitter social graph; A huge plus when engaging in activities like e-commerce.

You start using the service by entering your Twitter log in details. Once done, there are three things you could do:

• Give away something
• Request something
• Claim what you own

To submit a product, you can search on Amazon or Rakuten, or register a new product from scratch. Enter the product name, image, and status (giving away, searching for, own it). Set a period from 1 to 7 days, and also the shipping option. Livlis has a pretty active community. I submitted a book to give away and within 30 minutes, I already received two requests for it. All actions on Livlis like liking, wanting, owning something (Livlis’s original liking system) can be tweeted from your Twitter account.

Online transactions require Livlis points and there are several ways to obtain these. Livlis gives away 100 points for first time registration and also 100 points for users who gives away, wants or owns something for the first time. Plus, you will get 100 points for inviting friends and 10 points for each “I want it” reactions for your product submission.

What makes Livlis a social classified is that it embraces your Twitter social graph.  When submitting a product on Livlis, you can limit your target to your followers accordingly. Searching for a product works the same way, you can look from all products (Livlis has 15,000 products as of May 2011) or restrict your search to products submitted by your followers.

Livlis was launched in December 2010, and has so far attracted 30,000 users. The service is run by the former vice president of Hatena, Yuichi Kawasaki.  Livlis was featured at the recent Teclosion Spring 2011, held by media company DESIGN IT! LLC.  An iPhone app is scheduled to be released soon.