Min Kwon and Min Sin are just like the typical parents. When a new baby comes into the family, along with it comes the kid gear—strollers, car seats, high chairs, toys, etc. And as the child grows older and the gear piles up, parents look around to see that their home now looks more like a children’s retail store.
The couple had enough. They wanted to find a wayto get rid of the children’s products their son either grew out of or didn’t play with but do it in a way that was ecofriendly and useful to other parents. After speaking with friends while on playdates, nine parents joined together and started GogoPlay, an application that allows local parents to buy and sell kids gear. “Our whole thing is to be local, to help reduce the waste and help people around [the Metro-D.C. area],” says Kwon.
Since the launch in May, GogoPlay has approximately 500 users and has featured more than 800 items up for sale. “We started because we were directly concerned about kids items. We want it to be a place where parents could come in knowing it is just kids items,” says Kwon. “There are other applications and products out there for other stuff. We want to move away from that.”
Once users register, they can immediately start buying and selling items, with the seller setting their own price and buyers being able to offer a bid. To keep it local, Kwon, a programmer at a local start-up, has set up the application to pinpoint exactly where the item is located based off the seller’s GPS of the phone, allowing users to find nearby products. But, he says, the site does have securities in place. All communication takes place in the app so users never have to give out personal information. And there is a user-driven review system where users can report abuse such as quality of items and buyer-seller communication.
“Our whole thing was to have a small footprint so people who live close by can meet up and not have to ship items and incur the cost of fossil fuel. When we launched, users were asking us to provide a platform for payment within the app. So we are thinking about [that],” says Kwon.
Other app updates that are in the future: safety information, video clips for items and yard sale features where people can browse multiple items.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2013, released data estimating it will cost an average of $245,000 to raise a child born in 2013—that comes to $4,620 a year.
“A lot of these items are big-ticket items—stroller, baby seats—and a lot of people are struggling,” says Kwon. “It would very helpful to not only reduce the waste but also help people save money.”
(October 2015)