Man Wahoy Ya!
From used clothing to used cell phones and from job postings to lots for sale. Everything and anything can be found at the local community board Wahoy.com.
Wahoy was in the drawing board ever since 2001. The free online classified ads service Ronald (the lone webmaster of Wahoy.com) had in mind was shelved after he realized he didn't know what to name the online service he wanted to offer Zamboanguenos. But after two years, the free online classified ads service was finally introduced to Zamboanguenos. Wahoy was launched last January 31, 2003.
It started out with no more than 2 posts a day but that disappointing turn out didn't stop Ronald from adding a 21st century flare to the classified ads service industry in Zamboanga. He coordinated with his various contacts in the city and pretty soon there were Wahoy.com posters in internet cafes, malls, offices, schools, and restaurants.
Ronald reveals advertising the Wahoy website was the most difficult job especially since his target audience were Zamboanguenos. (which is still a developing consumer of internet services)
Features of Wahoy
What sets Wahoy apart from all its counterparts is its very efficient posting system wherein the user could choose whether he/she is looking, selling, or swapping goods thereby making wahoy a good venue for people to sell and buy second hand and brand new goods, and for employers to look for employees and vice versa.
Aside from its efficient posting system, Wahoy.com assures Zamboanguenos that their website is a very user-friendly one. But what really sets Wahoy apart is that it primarily serves Zamboanga City thus allowing people to do pay-and-get-item-upon-meeting type of transactions. Users of Wahoy have been known to meet with the buyer/seller personally and then transact at that point.
Namesake
To a lot of Zamboanguenos, Wahoy is a form of gambling. Ronald admits he was wary at first of choosing the domain name of Wahoy. He was afraid that Zamboanguenos would associate the Wahoy with the popular numbers game.
Uphill battle
Wahoy wasn't designed to perfection. Every now and then, we would hear some stories of dud purchases. Stories like this are not common only to Wahoy. Even eBay which is the leader among online auction websites receives complaints from buyers getting an item which is not in the state promised by the seller.
This type of problems is almost unavoidable and involves a massive intricacy of privacy issues and legal implications. Man Wahoy ya! With the upsurge of free online classified ads services, gone are the days when people would result to garage sales for selling their second hand goods.
Just yesterday, I overheard a teenager saying "man wahoy ya conese." This signals another addition in the ever expanding Chabacano vocabulary. Just as people are now saying google it or eBay it, (when using the popular search engine and online auction site respectively) we would be soon hearing people say man Wahoy ya!
Future of Wahoy.com
Today, Wahoy receives an average of almost 250 hits in a day. Currently, Ronald does not have any plans for Wahoy.com's immediate future. He says that he is quite happy already with what Wahoy has achieved.
With an active community of almost 2,000 buyers, sellers, and swappers. Ronald is doing everything to bring a quality classified ads service to his fellow Zamboanguenos.
Everyday, he continues to battle the ever-growing problem of bad-ad posting, and fraud. Ronald assures us though that as long as support is there, Wahoy would stay in cyberspace for a long long time.
1 comment:
I have to admit that when I first started reading your post I didn't even know where Zamboanga was. I have to say I'm impressed with what you've done with your online free classified ads service there. Starting out with only two posts must have been discouraging and yet you just kept going.
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