Is Glyde The Next Big Thing In Online Retail?

We mostly try to write about publicly held companies, but there are some times when a privately held company has the potential to seriously disrupt markets of existing companies. Glyde.com could be one such company.

Glyde was founded in 2006 by Simon Rothman, a seven-year eBay veteran and sells music, games, books and DVDs online. It seems similar to what eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) offer but "We think there is an opportunity between those two companies that doesn't exist today," Rothman said in an interview.

Rothman, a former McKinsey consultant, figured that online selling as it exists today is quite a complex process and it takes half an hour to an hour to put up something for auction online. Glyde.com seeks to remove those impediments and make it possible to upload an item for auction in seconds.

Glyde uses complex algorithms to help in pricing similar to Nasdaq pricing. When a shopper decides to buy, Glyde sends a pre-addressed, pre-stamped mailing envelope to the seller, who puts the item in the mail directly to the buyer. All of these features mean that Glyde.com is going to offer stiff competition to companies like GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) which are quite vulnerable due to their higher prices compared to Glyde.com.