PriceZombie is shutting down

#1

Post by viach » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

PriceZombie is shutting down
pricezombie.com

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#2

Post by nefitty » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:54 PM UTC

Damn, this is exactly what I've been looking for for the last year. Any alternatives?

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#3

Post by rory096 » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:55 PM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #2

Damn, this is exactly what I've been looking for for the last year. Any alternatives?

CamelCamelCamel. Amazon only, though – and who knows if they'll be shut down too under this policy.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#4

Post by acconrad » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:56 PM UTC

YC partner Aaron Harris had a similar problem with his first startup[1], and is a lesson for all startups:

It's risky to rely on one customer for the majority of your revenue.

90% of PriceZombie's revenue was dependent on affiliate revenue, and thus Amazon. Similarly, virtually all of TutorSpree's revenue was dependent on SEO, and thus on Google, and when Google changed their algorithm, they saw a similar fate.

[1] http://www.aaronkharris.com/when-seo-fails-single-channel-de...

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#5

Post by codegeek » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:57 PM UTC

Feel bad for them really. But this is a classic example of the risk you undertake running a business where you core depends on a third party. It is astonishing that they lost 90% of their business just due to amazon closing their affiliate account.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#6

Post by alanfalcon » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:59 PM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #2

Damn, this is exactly what I've been looking for for the last year. Any alternatives?

SlickDeals developed something similar but my understanding is that Amazon "asked" them to kill it or severely cripple it. Amazon's got a big stick and isn't afraid to weild it.l here.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#7

Post by great_kraken » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 2:59 PM UTC

Honestly I'm (selfishly) kind of glad that they're shutting down, as awful as that is. I browse Reddit a lot and the fact that every single time somebody posted a product, there would always be a PriceZombie bot commenting bugged me to no end.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#8

Post by elbigbad » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 3:00 PM UTC

This sucks, but unfortunately is something that is not unlikely to happen when one's whole service is hosted or relies on a third party API for its data. I recall something similar happening with a service that relied on the Google Maps API to draw coordinates or something. And Google pulled API access because the service was too similar to what Google Maps did with trip directions, or something.

Unfortunately this is a reality of basing, or largely basing, a whole service off of a third party.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#9

Post by NicoJuicy » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 3:01 PM UTC

Can you create this a self hosted application? Then Amazon can't really track this ( i suppose).

They should suddenly start tracking thousands of affliates and you could earn some money from it :) ( i suppose)

Eg. Something like https://sendy.co/ , i believe they earn plenty of money also :p

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#10

Post by nathancahill » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 3:02 PM UTC

great_kraken wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm (selfishly) kind of glad that they're shutting down, as awful as that is. I browse Reddit a lot and the fact that every single time somebody posted a product, there would always be a PriceZombie bot commenting bugged me to no end.

I've found that very helpful. Otherwise, I feel like I'm gambling when I buy something on Amazon. I could be getting the lowest price, or the highest. Amazon's price games are the worst (I know all stores do that to some extent, but Amazon's price swings are much bigger.. +-75% anecdotally)