A social network-based barter system

Abstract

More and more people are participating in barter exchanges owing to the Internet which connects people from around the world onto the same platform. However, it is discovered that many people have been deceived by some users on the customer to customer online trading platforms. In barter system, swapping the items directly is usually preferred to get rid of the risk but there is still a lack of tools to help decide a meeting venue on the traditional websites. To increase the reliability of trades, the participants are suggested to barter with the people around them rather than strangers. Therefore, a barter system is recommended to be integrated on a social networking website and make use of the relationships on the website to build a recommendation system with the hope of providing a safer, more interactive and user-friendly environment for bartering. On one hand, it will introduce more reliable trade partners to the participants. On the other hand, the existing social connections will play a role to dampen the intentions of the people to cheat on their partners. Facilitating the two parties to determine a meeting place, a more interactive mapping service should be provided. Users will be easier to find a mutually convenient location with reference to transportation routes and the suggested locations shown on the map. To achieve the aims, the design and implementation of some popular customer to customer trading systems, online barter systems, applications on a popular social networking site and online mapping services is investigated; the recommender and communication-enhancing features on the online systems is examined; a prototype social network-based barter system is developed. Among the social networking platforms, Facebook is preferred and studied due to its large interpersonal relationship database. To better use of the connections of friends and families on Facebook, a trading partner recommender system is embedded. Moreover, Google Maps Application Programming Interface is selected to build the mapping service due to its large database and variety of services. It is expected that this project, developing a more comprehensive barter trade application, would be useful for producing similar web applications and acting as a precursor to change individual purchasing behaviors in future.