I’ll ask a question as it doesn’t seem popular at the moment
The people I have spoken to think it strange a “trust” company would be a good way to make a profit. Now there is obviously nothing wrong with this at all but the worry is why? Does this mean new revenue streams will appear to appease the shareholders? More adverts?
I love Trust Pilot and use lots but was surprised to see an IPO. I know it isn’t a charity and I hope the people behind it are well paid etc but it just seems a strange investment and not something I would think about investing in. I like the thought of TP not being pushed by shareholders and being totally independent.
As your valuation is based on ÂŁ15 per person in the country, what percentage of people use the service and how much money do you expect to get from each user?
Follow up question - as presumably the end-users aren’t paying directly to read the reviews, it must be the companies listing themselves, and how can you ensure they’ll be happy continuing to pay a large listing fee if they get negative reviews?
I would suggest many are easy to spot but there will be thousands of slightly bad fakes given to a rival business. A local garage for example could give an ok review about a rival but with a little sting at the end and would gain clients.
Some fakes are easy to spot but many won’t be and they are usually the most effective I would guess.
I have a friend who owns a restaurant and most of the reviews on tripadvisor are her competitors leaving bad reviews. She can’t do anything about it, but she knows they’re fake as when she checked the dates they didn’t even have bookings for the group sizes they describe.
I went on a holiday and the reps asked to post positive reviews and when I looked many were written by the activities team They didn’t even change their names and some used fake names and real pictures
In case you didn’t see it in your edition of Honey this afternoon, here is the chat with Carolyn at Trustpilot, fresh from their recent £1bn+ IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
Thanks for all the questions.
Let us know who you’d like us to hold the next listed company community AMA with, and we’ll do our best to line them and ask them your questions!
Can we get some more hard-hitting questions, @DavidK ?
I don’t think many of the questions here were answered. It would be good to get more unique insight that would help people make investment decisions. Thanks for the interview.
If you could get Ocado, that would be sweet. Not sure if you’ve spoken to them already. They are one of the more interesting technology companies in the UK, that’s publicly traded. They’re doing interesting things with providing automation and fulfilment as a service, and not just with grocery warehouses, as far as I’m aware.
