AI has arrived! While some marketplaces are already benefiting from the technology, others are researching the right solution. Regardless of which state your marketplace is in, research mode or not, it’s always beneficial to know which AI solutions are out there and to evaluate which will bring the most value if implemented.

The tremendous upside of utilizing the right AI solutions is marketplace growth. Often through increased user experience, lower conversion barriers and safe transactions. But finding the right AI solution for your online marketplace isn’t the easiest of tasks. And spending resources on either developing or purchasing the wrong AI solution wastes money and slows momentum.

Considering the jungle of AI solutions available in the market it’s not easy for decision-makers to make the right prioritizations.

And even once you’ve carefully evaluated your needs and requirements in an AI solution, you also must consider if it makes sense to develop the solution internally or if it would make more sense to buy AI from a third-party solution provider.

Clarifying AI for marketplaces

With so many question marks surrounding this topic, we decided to help online marketplaces straighten things out. Together with Lars Schön, from giosg, we held a 30-minute webinar where we explored how marketplaces can benefit from AI and how to decide whether to build or buy.

Watch the full recording of the webinar below:

Wow, the ICMA conference at Malta really came and went in a split second. And the initial take away from the conference is clear, the industry is facing game-changing challenges and there is a new future lurking beyond the horizon.

Throughout the conference one topic continuously resurfaced; across the board, traditional classifieds has started adding services and value to their platforms, as they’re moving towards becoming online marketplaces.

Blockchain was the theme of this conference and it was made clear that this technology is not yet considered a disrupter in the classifieds and marketplace industry, but more seen as a potential enabler for classifieds to become marketplaces. But in the grand scale of things, it’s not clear how this would work for the large audiences’ classifieds and marketplaces are catering today.

Voice search is another technology that’s under development and the ability to automatically determine gender, age, urgency and much more, can become a competitive differentiator for those who get this right.

Besedo at ICMA

At the conference, we were joined on stage by Jelena Moncilli, Anti-Fraud Specialist at anibis.ch. Together we shared anibis.ch’s incredible journey from 0% to 94% automated moderation.

Jelena shared insights on the challenges they were facing, why they turned to us at Besedo for support, and ultimately how Automation improved their moderation process and user experience.

We recorded the entire presentation and it’s available for you to watch here.

In addition to the presentation, we’ve also created an in-depth case study together with anibis.ch. The case study explores the details of their incredible journey from 0% to 94% automation. By downloading the case study, you get the opportunity to benchmark your current moderation setup and spot areas for improvement.

Want to know how we can help you improve your moderation setup too?

Every online marketplace is unique and has their own requirements. To meet the unique needs of our clients, we combine state-of-the-art AI technology with 15+ years of moderation expertise and experience working with global marketplaces of all sizes.

Get in touch with a content moderation expert today.

From day one of online marketplaces and classifieds existence, sites have faced the challenge of trust. At the early stage, when the concept was new, the primary challenge was to convince the market that it was safe to transact with strangers online.

Today the foundation for trust has been laid, but online marketplaces are still facing the challenge of building trust in their individual sites and in the users that frequent them.

The trust stack

In order to dissect trust into tangible areas, Rachel Botsman has developed a trust framework for the collaborative economy, which she refers to as the Trust stack.

The trust stack consists of three levels of trust;

1. trust in the idea
2. trust in the platform
3. trust in the user

The first level, trust in the idea, has today been widely overcome as the industry has matured and the general public, in large, is comfortable using marketplaces. The two latter levels in her trust stack, trust in the platform and trust in the user, is where individual online marketplaces can influence and need to perform.

If you think about it, what is it that a marketplace is facilitating? A marketplace’s main service is enabling strangers to engage and transact with one another. Then your actual product is not the technical platform, it’s trust.

Therefore, it’s not a surprise that achieving a high level of user trust is a key component to improving your acquisition, conversion and retention rates. It’s in this form marketplaces are rewarded by their users for facilitating a safe platform and experience.

How can marketplaces build trust?

There are multiple components that go into building trust in the platform and the user for a marketplace. In a recorded webinar, together with Shieldpay, we dissect trust building and discuss the methods that will help your marketplace facilitate a safe platform and experience.

Want to see how trust will improve your marketplace success?

We combine state-of-the-art AI technology with more than 15-year expertise in content moderation, helping online marketplaces build trust, improve content quality and user experience.

Get in touch with a trust expert today.

Few people know online marketplaces better than Mathias Ockenfels, partner at Speedinvest x, a Berlin-based early stage focus fund investing in network effects. We spoke with him to better understand why online marketplaces hold their value, how founders can get investment ready, and exactly what investors are looking for before investing in a marketplace.

Int: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Mathias! Could you give us a little insight into your career so far?

MO: For sure – I’m Mathias and I live and breathe online marketplaces! I’ve been involved with them for the past ten years — since my student days. Before launching Speedinvest x, I was the German general manager for Uniplaces, a marketplace for student accommodation. I started out as an investment manager at Zurich-based Mountain Partners Group, before landing roles at Point Nine Capital, another early stage fund focused on SaaS and marketplaces; and heading the mergers and acquisitions arm at Ricardo Group, then a subsidiary of South African Naspers.

Int: So… why online marketplaces? What is it about them that drives your interest?

MO: I’ve been building online stores since I was a teenager but came across the idea of ‘network effects’ when researching my degree thesis. It’s underpinned by a very simple but powerful concept: the value of the network increases with every new participant who joins the network.

This idea predates the internet – it stems from telephone networks. The more people used a phone, the more it made sense for others to have a phone. From an online marketplace perspective, once you’ve built a critical mass of users, it’s hard for a competitor to penetrate or disrupt your market – even if your product is inferior (just look at craigslist!).

From a business perspective, one of the first investments I helped broker was for a company called ‘Yourdelivery’, a Just Eat competitor, which later rebranded to Lieferando and was eventually acquired by the Takeaway Group that IPO’ed for around €1bn. Shpock’s sale to Schibsted was another deal we saw come to fruition here at Speedinvest.

Basically, it’s clear that online marketplaces, given the right team, environment, and backing have huge potential.

Int: What kinds of marketplaces do you invest in now at Speedinvest x? 

MO: Speedinvest x sits underneath our parent company Speedinvest and focuses solely on early-stage online marketplaces and network effects-driven startups in Europe and North America.

Even more specifically, rather than ‘type’ of marketplace, we’re more interested in the stage or phase a company’s at, as we aim to be the first institutional investor a marketplace encounters: at both Seed and Pre-Seed stage.

That’s the phase we feel most comfortable getting involved in; and it’s where we can add the most value, too. We often invest in a company several times within the same phase.

Int: Aside from investment (!) what else do you offer the companies you work with?

MO: As VCs it’s not our job to come up with the idea, it’s to find the entrepreneurs who are creating them. When we do, we get very operationally involved. Most of our team come from an entrepreneurial background, so they know what founders are going through! We often place a dedicated team member within each company we invest in.

Also, because we can tap into Speedinvest’s experts in Europe (Austria, Germany, and the UK) and the US, we can help marketplaces grow their teams, presence and go-to-market strategy – thanks to Speedinvest’s dedicated HR (known as the Speedinvest Heroes) and growth hacking (known as the Speedinvest Pirates) teams.

Int: What do you look at when deciding whether to invest in a marketplace or not?  

MO: The overall market must be big enough, in order for it to offer the kind of return we’re looking for. It doesn’t make financial sense for us to invest in something that is very niche.

We’re looking for teams that tackle billion-dollar markets; companies that are on track to achieve product-market fit; the kind that are solving real pain points for their users. We also look into the team and overall growth, but we take both a qualitative and quantitative approach to ensure we get a range of KPIs and statistics.

We talk to their customers and users, to get a good feel for what their real pain points are, and to determine the extent to which they perceive the business is solving these problems.

From a quantitative aspect, we look at a range of factors: how the numbers stack up, growth dynamics; as well as non-financial KPIs: such as engagement numbers and how people are using the product. This can include everything from weekly and daily active users to booking or transaction numbers. Basically, we are looking at anything that shows us how people are using the product and how engaged they are; and whether these are in line with the kind of engagement we would expect based on what the problem the marketplace or platform is solving.

For example, with a platform like Shpock, you’d expect to see more frequent, long-term usage, as a typical use case. However, with a real estate platform, user activity would typically be high over a few weeks; as those buying a home tend to conduct their search on a short-term basis, but actually move home rarely.

Retention is important, too. We therefore often look at cohort analysis of users. Once a startup is starting to generate revenue we look at how fast it is growing. But, making money isn’t the primary concern at the Seed- or Pre-Seed phase. The really important thing is to achieve that critical mass of users – which is why we take engagement figures into account and consider it as more important than actual, financial traction.

Int: So you’re not necessarily concerned if a marketplace isn’t making money from the outset? 

MO: One of the biggest mistakes founders make is monetizing too early. A small profitable business is not a bad thing, but it won’t be a game changer – or a good VC case. It might seem counterintuitive, but building a marketplace is about hitting critical mass as fast as possible so the network effects can kick in.

If you start monetizing too soon you risk people shying away, which impedes the network effect. That’s why we pay such close attention to engagement numbers. The ratio between daily and monthly users indicates the ‘stickiness’ of the platform. The higher that is, the better the market fit; and the more compelling a case it becomes for investment.

Int: What’s the most effective way for marketplaces to reach that critical mass?

MO: It all depends whether you’re building a vertical or horizontal marketplace.

With horizontal marketplaces, you should try to build liquidity early and focus on quality afterward. Get as many listings as possible and once you introduce listing fees, you’ll soon put an end to fake or prank listings. That said, it’s important to monitor and remove scammer from the outset – to protect users and to ensure the best experience for all.

If you’re building a vertical platform; quality comes first. You’re essentially creating a marketplace giving people access to a supply that no-one else has; a niche where you can make a difference and deliver a unique experience.

Being niche gives you the opportunity to truly cater to your target audience and provide a very targeted service and platform, however, there is such a thing as being too niche.

To be successful, the chosen niche needs to have broad enough appeal to build ‘quantity’.

Or If you can capture a large enough percentage of transactions (say, 20-30%) then that may be good enough even if it’s very niche – but that hinges on you providing enough value to ensure customers are willing to pay that kind of money.

Int: Some great info here… what would be your best piece of advice for online marketplaces looking for investment? 

MO: Try to have your numbers in place from the very beginning so you can come across as professional and on top of your numbers. Follow engagement numbers daily and show how changes to the marketplace alter user behavior.

And – show us you care! Because we invest at an early stage, first and foremost we invest in the founders. We want to be sure of them, their drive, and passion. If you’re not passionate about the industry you’re in, or the idea you’re working on, others won’t feel that excitement either. Authenticity accounts for a lot. Usually, the best ideas come from those with experience of the pain points; those who genuinely want to solve a particular problem. Rarely do those who start a business that ‘seems like a good opportunity’ have that same passion.

Int: And finally, do you think the online marketplace sector could exhaust itself? 

MO: A lot of people do – but I don’t. There’s lots of competition out there, and many categories are already covered. But, consider the B2B space. It’s still largely untapped.

In B2B there are lots of asset-heavy categories – such as construction materials, machinery or storage – assets that don’t get used to their fullest extents. Companies like Stowga (one of ours…) who uses the sharing economy approach to warehouse space, is growing in popularity.

There are some great ideas out there, and we want to back the entrepreneurs that have those ideas and help make them a reality.

Thanks Mathias! A lot of great information and a huge help to a lot of early-stage marketplaces. For more information on how to get investment for your online marketplace, contact Speedinvest x. 

To learn how content moderation can help you get better engagement numbers talk to one of our solutions designers. 

In 2017 alone, victims lost US$ 19,061,703 to romance and dating scammers. New tech helps you protect your users, but it also gives scammers new opportunities to deceive them.

We sat down with Steve Baker, former director at FTC, and Patrik Frisk, Besedo CEO, to discuss the future of romance scams and how artificial intelligence can help you prepare.

Steve Baker: I will start by sharing some rather terrifying stats:

• At any one time, there may be 25,000 romance scammers online; most of them located in Lagos.
• More than 14% of all profiles created are fraudulent.
• US/Canadian victims reporting have lost nearly a billion US$ over the last three years.

What can dating sites do to help prevent romance scams?

Steve Baker: With so many potential victims it’s important that companies take responsibility for the safety of their users, and learn how to spot scammers and how to prevent them from reaching end users.

Companies need to:

• Provide better warnings, especially to people contacted by fake profiles.
• Screen profiles thoroughly.
• Moderate 1-to-1 messages.

Patrik Frisk: This is exactly what our clients are doing. They realize that it’s not only bad for the bottom line when users get scammed, they also feel responsible for keeping their users safe. We help them understand what dating scams look like, how to deal with new trends and we are vigilant in updating our clients when scammers change tactics.

The framework for the dating scams we encounter daily is actually quite basic:

• Grab attention.
• Build a relationship with the victim.
• Move the communication off-site as quickly as possible.
• Continue building the relationship until the victim is deemed ready for monetary requests.

When we talk about scams and how to detect it we often refer to what we call scam markers. Scam markers are specific elements within a text, picture or the surrounding data that indicates that there’s a chance this could be a scam.

When it comes to romance scams these are some of the most common scam markers we encounter:

• Specific phrases and words, such as “I am a God fearing man/woman”.
• Location.
• Number of submissions.
• Broad age range interest (18-99 y/o).
• Picture selection (stock photo, stolen).
• Occupation (businessman in Africa, military out-stationed in Africa, missionary in Africa).

To prevent scams we help our clients through a number of different solutions:

• Custom AI models that are trained on labeled data and learns which content is unwanted. This is, for instance, a service we are providing Meetic, where we are achieving 99% accuracy and 90% automation and have saved them 67% in moderation costs.
• Automatic filters which can check for IP addresses, specific phrases etc. In our tool Implio, we are capable of setting up complex rules that can catch the majority of scam markers.
• Human moderation by agents trained specifically to detect romance scammers.

How are users affected by romance scams?

Steve Baker: The emotional damage is often at least as bad as the money loss. In fact, Australian law enforcement believes that Australia has more deaths from suicides over romance fraud than they do from murders.

Patrik Frisk: We have handled customer support for big dating sites and we have seen the heart-wrenching complaints from the few people who report getting scammed. There’s no denying that these people have been severely hurt and that their trust in the site they were scammed on has been severely shaken if not completely broken.

Steve Baker: Yes, it can be quite a traumatic experience, and it’s not only women that are touched by this as many believe. The number of male victims matches that of females, they are just far less likely to complain. Romance fraud also targets the LGBT community and it’s a global issue with scammers operating out of centers in, for example, Africa, Russia or the Ukraine.

What does the future of romance scams look like? Are we about to get them under control?

Steve Baker: I am afraid not.

Unfortunately, while we have companies like Besedo working hard on creating solutions and technology to help prevent fraud, scammers are also working overtime to develop new ways to con victims. In the future, we will see crooks using new technology to target users and circumvent out of date moderation processes.

We will also see scammers picking up video as a channel to communicate with and use as a method for sextortion. This will most likely lead to an increase of organized sextortion gangs.

Sextortion is when scammers lure victims to either get naked or perform sexual acts on a video call and record the act to later threaten to distribute it unless paid.

Patrik Frisk: I can only agree with this prediction, unfortunately.

We are seeing a lot of sites starting to add video chat to their site, which is a great way to make “first dates” safer for the users and also a great way for higher user engagement and revenue. Unfortunately, it also gives scammers another channel to utilize for sextortion, that Steve Baker mentioned. According to cyberbullying.org, 40% of sextortion victims met the perpetrator online. If we don’t put great processes in place for video moderation, we expect that number to grow as video becomes more common on dating sites.

Steve Baker: I also foresee that crooks increasingly will watch what law enforcement does and learn from that to better avoid capture.

Patrik Frisk: That prediction holds true for content moderation processes as well. We know that scammers are learning from getting their fake profiles rejected and continuously invent new ways to slip through the moderation net. It’s one of our internal research teams most challenging and important jobs to keep up with new scam trends so we can ensure that scammers are caught as quickly as possible.

Steve Baker: One of those new methods is to use social media, both as a platform to scam, but also to support the credibility of fake profiles the scammers create on online dating sites. Many people will do a quick cursory check of the social media profile of a potential love interest, both to learn more about them, but also to verify that the person is real. Scammers have learned this and will increasingly create a fake online personality that stretches over multiple platforms rather than just a fake profile on a singular site.

Finally, I predict dating companies are going to get more scrutiny for their practices. Cases against Western Union and MoneyGram show that companies that don’t take basic precautions to protect their customers are at risk.

Patrik Frisk: Government legislation and increased responsibility being put on marketplaces is definitely something we are likely to see in the future. One new trend scam, that may get harder to combat because of this is a shift in where the scam takes place. Scammers have gotten a lot better at creating genuine looking profiles, which moves the scam detection to 1-to-1 messages.

One of the main challenges with moderating 1-to-1 messages is, of course, user privacy. How much will people approve of us looking into their private conversations?

In Europe, we’re seeing a lot of initiatives towards protecting user data, GDPR that goes live in May for instance. This, unfortunately as mentioned, may make it harder to keep users safe from scammers in the digital world. GDPR is most likely only a first step as we step into an age where user privacy will be a huge discussion point.

The solution is to let AI handle the sensitive task of keeping users safe while also respecting their privacy and government legislation. AI moderation is moving from a tool to cut costs into a necessity for legal compliance. This is one of the reasons to why we are working hard on implementing free AI modules in our moderation tool. To make it available for smaller sites who, due to volumes required for tailored models, otherwise would not have access to AI moderation.

As far as long term trends go, we will probably see VR becoming a stable element on dating sites, similar to what we’re experiencing with video right now. When that time arrives, scammers will most likely latch on to this new communication channel and abuse it for fraud, but when this happens we will be ready with a solution to keep them at bay and keep your users safe.

Sexual harassment has featured heavily in the media of late, as scores of women who’ve remained quiet about their experiences have bravely spoken out with a simple yet meaningful hashtag: #MeToo.

While the highly inexcusable exploits of men in positions of power, like Harvey Weinstein (among many others) may now be well documented, undesirable activity doesn’t have to be anywhere near as precarious to qualify as sexual harassment; particularly in digital environments like dating websites and messaging apps.

According to one study in Australia, the harassment of women online has become a ‘digital norm’ with nearly half of all women experiencing abuse or harassment online – including 76% of those under 30. These worrying statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. While much is being done to raise awareness of online harassment, for many it’s both unclear what exactly constitutes it and many dating sites still struggle with how to deal with it.

Defining online sexual harassment

According to Childnet International, an organisation that promotes internet safety for young people, there are four types of online sexual harassment

• Non consensual sharing of intimate images and videos — for example, revenge porn.
• Exploitation, coercion and threats — such as blackmailing someone with compromising images of themselves.
• Sexualised bullying — includes so called ‘slut-shaming’: demonising women for dressing provocatively.
• Unwanted sexualisation — this covers a wide range of behaviours from unwanted and even unprompted messages to making inappropriate comments about someone’s appearance.

It appears that while some instances of sexual harassment criteria are obvious, others could be seen as arbitrary – particularly in the ‘Unwanted’ category. Why? Because what one person may find appropriate may in fact cause harm to another. Since the Weinstein allegations much has been made of ways to tackle individual behaviour from both a female and male perspective, but what are dating sites doing to tackle sexual harassment?

Education and empowerment

Organisations such as the Online Dating Association in the UK place a strong focus on educating consumers and online dating businesses about best practices, including ways to keep users safe from sexual predators.

However, while more needs to be done to prevent extreme cases, there also needs to be greater focus on prevention, which means taking a stance on inappropriate messaging. You only have to look at Bye Felipe on Instagram to see some prime examples of just how casual obscenity has become.

And then there’s Bumble: the first dating app to be specifically designed for women. It’s core value is advancing, empowering, and helping women. Like other dating services, it only initiates contact when there’s a mutual match, but unlike other services women make the first move. And it’s now the fastest growing dating site in the world

Making a stand

As more women take a stand on harassment, inappropriate comments are going to be called out more frequently. That’s why it’s vital that women in the public eye continue to speak out against sexual harassment – as Oprah Winfrey did at this year’s Golden Globes– in order to give others hope, encouragement, and courage.

But the issue cannot be solved by individuals alone. Companies have a huge social responsibility and need to weigh in too. Popular platforms and companies must play their part. Speaking out is one thing. But more can be done. Dating and classified sites can help protect their users via content moderation; an effective way of monitoring, flagging and removing inappropriate images and messages. Not only does it counter sexual harassment, it’ll reduce user churn too.

There’s a clear difference between malicious behaviour and accidental offence. And while it’s relatively straightforward to create content moderation filters that flag specific words and phrases, what’s less easy to achieve is an understanding of context. But it is possible: through a combination of machine-learning and manual moderation.

No-one should have to endure fear or humiliation of any kind, at any time, in any place: on-or offline. As an increasing number of online marketplaces, classifieds, and dating sites put more stringent measures in place to prevent harassment, perhaps those who’ve been guilty of sexual harassment in the past will think twice before sending an inappropriate message.

In the meantime, the tide is turning against offenders and the issues affecting so many is firmly in the public spotlight. Change is coming, but we can’t rest until then. Here at Besedo, we’re trying to raise awareness through our #WeToo social media campaign. Why not join us?

Tweet this: Companies have a social responsibility to help fight online sexual harassment. Learn how. 

Ready for 2018? Here are some of the online marketplace trends we think will have the biggest impact on our industry over the next 12 months.

2017 was a landmark year for online marketplaces and classified sites, but what can we expect for the year ahead? Here are a few trends we think will gain traction.

1) Virtually There

When many of us think of ‘Virtual Reality’ we are transported back in time nearly 30 years – to when clunky, blocky visuals and impossibly heavy wearables were heralded as ‘the future’. Yup, VR took a while to catch on (and improve), and while it’s by no means a fixture in our homes, more and more businesses – from travel brands to interior designers – are using it to show customers what’s possible.

The real estate sector, in particular, continues to benefit from VR. With more traditionally ‘physical’ sectors made remotely accessible, there’s ample opportunity for all kinds of online marketplaces to help customers experience different environments – like ‘trying on’ clothes or even VR dating – without the cost and inconvenience of travel; opening up even more ways to create value.

2) Marketplaces Go Truly Global

Whether the US Federal Communication Commission’s decision to dismantle Net Neutrality laws – which effectively gives ISPs carte blanche to direct internet traffic however they choose – will have global ramifications remains to be seen. But in the immediate future,  classified sites are almost certain to continue adapting to the needs of an international audience; using local, on-the-ground knowledge to attract a broader customer base.

For example, ‘Housing As A Service’ sites – like Homealike and Wunderflats – that allows customers to rent fully-furnished flats for a short period of time, are catering to an increasingly mobile city- and country-agnostic workforce.

In a similar way, as more classified sites that rely on user-generated content expand to different nations and draw a bigger customer base, they open themselves up to increased targeting by scammers. Scamming is a global phenomenon, and one of the easiest ways for scammers to slip under the radar is to ‘pretend’ they’re in one country when they’re actually based in another. This means that online marketplaces may need to exercise greater awareness of where their customers are actually based, and use geolocation detection as part of their moderation and fraud prevention strategy.

3) Bring On The Blockchain

2017 is already being heralded as ‘the year blockchain went mainstream’ by many tech pundits and futurists. But that doesn’t just refer to bitcoin and its meteoric rise. For many, the blockchain itself – the technology that bitcoin’s built on – is infinitely more interesting and important than cryptocurrency. Why? Because it could completely revolutionize how our personal data is controlled – which could have a huge impact on online marketplaces.

It sounds complex, and it is, but the basic principles are straightforward. Essentially, a blockchain is an unforgeable digital data record: decentralized ledgers that are run and owned by no-one and everyone: not a third party. When data is anonymized and secure, its value is controlled by our willingness to share it: a 360 degree shift from how it’s been handled historically. For example, say we allow our shopping data to be accessed by an online retailer who wants to analyse local appetite for a new product line. Blockchain technology would both maintain our data’s anonymity and allow us to assign a value to our data. Yup, we could even earn money by granting access to it.

The first blockchain real estate transaction was made last year. And yes, it was by a high profile advisor to a niche startup. But this wasn’t just a show of what’s possible; it was a wake up call. Not just to real estate agents, but to online marketplace owners too. Businesses, governments, and even financial institutions are beginning to experiment with blockchains too; and for online marketplaces we’ll definitely see continued innovation as data usage and online security practices get increasingly sophisticated.

4) Impact On The Internet Of Things

For online marketplaces, the sharing economy presents new opportunities too. There are some 8 billion devices connected to the internet – from laptops to washing machines. And as automation becomes more commonplace, the ability to create value through sharing digital assets is becoming increasingly widespread.

While it’s been possible to share access to physical goods via online marketplaces (think Uber and Airbnb) for some time, thanks to securely managed blockchain technologies, more and more people are leveraging their digital assets and goods as a source of income: such as renting out their hard drive storage space, or selling their unused text message allowances. Automation allows us to simply ‘set and forget’ these transactions and activities; which is great… as long as security is brought into the mix as well.

5) Trust & Safety: Crucial Components

While the opportunities for online marketplaces to expand are ample, this places renewed focus on a particularly important area: trust. Any online marketplace navigating new digital territory needs to prioritise safety and security, but we’re willing to bet that the role of dedicated ‘Trust and Safety’ specialists will become integral parts of any online marketplace’s business operations: particularly as the EU’s GDPR legislation comes into effect at the end of May 2018, giving individuals greater control over how their personal data is used. Such increased scrutiny around data privacy might make human content moderation a lot trickier, and may also mean that some things – like one-to-one messages – can only be reviewed by AI.

As scammers find new ways to exploit burgeoning technologies, the emphasis on trust mechanisms, like content moderation, will continue to gain ground. While we will see an increased need for specialists who can predict  and crack down on fraudulent user activity. Simultaneously we will see a rapid rise in the requirement to automate moderation activity, with bespoke machine learning filters custom made for particular site needs.

To find out more about content moderation and how our Implio tool works, contact the Besedo team.

Have a great 2018!

Over the past year Facebook has been in the news multiple times regarding their moderation processes.

Due to the social media company’s size and penetration in society, there have been some very public reactions to their content moderation approach whenever it has been revealed. For those of us who rely heavily on professional content moderation processes to ensure as smooth a user experience as possible, these incidents have been great case studies.

So what can we learn from Facebook’s moderation approach and the public backlash we have seen on several occasions during the past year?

Let’s have a look at a couple of noteworthy moderation incidents that caught the public attention.

Managing fake news or letting them manage you?

Last year in late August, Facebook made headlines for firing the team that was curating stories for their trending news module.

They replaced the human team with an AI that was supposed to have learned from the decisions taken by the curators. The change came after accusations that the curating team was not objective in their choices.

But once the human team was replaced Facebook faced an even worse problem. The algorithm was distributing fake news. The Fake news issue grew over the month to come and escalated during the US presidential election. Some even blame Facebook’s fake news issue for Donald Trump being elected president.

What we can learn:

AI and machine learning are powerful tools in managing and moderating content, but the algorithms and models need to be very well made for them to be efficient and most importantly they have to be accurate. Often the best solution for content moderation is a combination of an expert human team continuously feeding new data to the AI ensuring ongoing tweaks, adjustments and that the algorithms evolve in a good way.

Censoring the public or protecting users?

In the autumn Facebook faced a very public debate because of their moderation processes, when they removed the award winning Vietnam War picture “Napalm Girl” posted on the platform by Norwegian writer Tom Egeland. This led to a back and forth debacle with Norway’s largest newspaper Aftenposten and to a load of critical news coverage globally.

In the end Facebook had to issue an apology, allow the picture on their platform and amend their guidelines.

What we can learn:

Facebook argued throughout the ordeal that they removed the picture based on their moderation guidelines which do not allow nudity, especially not nude children. While this is of course a great baseline moderation rule to have in place, the incident showed that when it comes to grey area cases they often need to be discussed and decided upon on a case by case basis.

When you set up moderation guidelines, make sure you also provide your team with direction on what to do with grey area cases. It is also incredibly important that you have good internal communication established so moderators can easily escalate cases that are outside the norm. While you might not be able to completely eliminate objectionable decisions, you can at least limit them and if you follow the above you can prove that decisions for grey area content are taken with great care and reflection.

Viral or violent videos?

In April 2016 Facebook launched their live feature allowing people to more easily share and create videos directly through the social media platform. While the feature was quickly adopted by Facebook’s userbase and the interest in Live continues to rise, it has also caused a number of issues for Facebook. Most damaging to their brand has been the amount of violent videos that suddenly flooded the platform spreading virally. In the end Facebook has been forced to acknowledge the issue and has hired a team of moderators to deal with the issue, but it took almost a year before the tech giant bent to the public demand and a lot of bad PR has happened in that time that could have been avoided with a quicker response.

Graph showing the spike in Google searches for Facebook live after the Cleveland shooting April 16th 2017

What we can learn:

It has been argued that the Facebook live feature was rushed as the social media giant was falling behind other social networks in the video field. Whether this is true or not we can’t say, but it is clear that Facebook was not prepared to handle the amount and type of user generated content that suddenly flooded the platform.

The takeaway for us should be to ensure that we have the workforce and tech in place and ready to scale when launching new features or a new site. This is an important lesson, for startups in particular, as growth can happen rapidly. It is important to put clear processes in place for UGC moderation when volumes can no longer be managed by the founders. Otherwise a unicorn dream can quickly turn into a PR nightmare.

Leaked moderation guidelines.

You’ll have probably seen a few weeks back that Facebook’s content moderation guidelines were ‘leaked’. What quickly became apparent was that unless users decide to show their private parts or threaten to kill Donald Trump, a lot of other material will in fact be ok’d by its in-house moderation team.

Alright… it’s not that simplistic, but as the contradictory nature of some of the moderation rules illustrate, even a platform of Facebook’s magnitude is stumbling around in the dark when it comes to handling user-generated content.

The public reaction to seeing the guidelines were in stark contrast to the Napalm Girl incident, with many calling the rules too lax and condemning Facebook for allowing violent content to go live. Facebook on the other hand has claimed that in some cases violent content is relevant when it is part of a discussion around current events. Everything is about the context of the post as well. They allow pictures of non-sexual child abuse as long as the context shows that the post is against child abuse and not glorifying it.

What we can learn:

In the public eye the path between censorship and an approach that is too lax is narrow and it changes on a case by case basis depending on how it is presented in the media. The best way to protect yourself and your business against public outrage is to make sure you have clear, non-biased rules and policies in place for your content moderation.

Make sure that your moderation actions are as consistent as possible.

Also keep an eye on new trends. Previously innocent terms can take on nefarious meanings in the blink of an eye when the Internet culture grabs hold of it and twists it to its own purpose.

Putting Facebook moderation learnings to good use.

The main take away looking at the many Facebook moderation incidents over the past year is that moderation expertise, consistency, better internal communication and ensuring that processes and resources were in place could have gone a long way to minimize the public backlash and the recurring negative media coverage.

Those are valuable lessons to consider when running an online marketplace relying on user generated content.