wikipedia s notability guidelines for companies and organizations . please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention . if notability can not be established the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted . find sources dealdash news newspapers books scholar jstor free images august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message dealdash type private founded february 22 2009 2009 02 22 headquarters minneapolis minnesota united states and finland area served united states founder s william wolfram industry e commerce products online bidding fee auction with buy it now option employees 65 website official website users 8 million dealdash is an e commerce company based in minneapolis minnesota . the company was founded in february 2009 and operates the longest running bidding fee auction penny auction website in the united states . having more than eight million registered users makes the company one of the largest providers of pay to participate auctions in the world . 1 2 as an example of a penny auction site dealdash has been criticized by consumer groups being costly to users and for having similarities to gambling . 3 4 5 contents 1 history 2 business model 3 finances and funding 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit dealdash was founded by william wolfram in the united states in february 2009 . 6 7 its business model is that customers pay a fee to bid on an online auction and if they lose that auction they can purchase the item they were bidding for at the regular retail price with the bids placed in the auction returned to their account . 1 8 according to adweek and research from socialbakers for research covering the period may 1 until may 13 2013 dealdash was the most talked about brand in the world on facebook s people talking about this metric . 9 10 in august 2013 dealdash also created the site dealdashreviewed.com to house and aggregate reviews and testimonials from their customers . 11 12 business model edit in order to participate registered bidders must first buy bids before entering into an auction . bids cost 60 13 14 unless on sale at the time . bids are sold in lots bid packs varying in amounts from 100 to 1000 bids . standard auctions begin with an opening price of 0.00 and every time someone bids the price increases by 0.01 and removes one paid bid credit 60 from the user s bid balance . the auction clock restarts from a maximum of 10 seconds every time a bid is placed . if no new bids are placed before the clock runs out the last and highest bidder is declared the winner of the auction and owns the rights to purchase the auction item at the final sales price within 14 days of the auction ending . 15 16 bidders who are unsuccessful at winning an auction can choose to purchase the same item at a price set by the company buy it now within 7 days of the auction ending . the bidder then gets back the bids used in the auction as credits to use in future auctions . according to consumer reports the buy it now price for can be significantly higher than the same products on amazon.com . 3 unsuccessful bidders not using the option lose the value of the bids placed . a company spokesperson says dealdash generates significant business from bidders who choose to buy items after losing with hundreds of orders processed daily . 17 bids can be placed in two ways . bidders may choose to place single bids which requires the person to be present on the site and manually click the bid button . alternatively bidders can place bids through an automatic bidding tool called the bidbuddy . bidders can add the number of bids they want to place and the tool will automatically bid in the final seconds of the auction in an attempt to keep the bidder at the highest position which is repeated up to the number of bids added . if an auction is won using the bidbuddy unused remaining bids if any are returned to the bidder s account . 15 18 penny auction sites including dealdash specifically have often been criticized for failing to disclose or include the cost of bids in what customers actually spend in total to win a product . in most cases users spend substantial sums of money without winning anything . dealdash and others have been compared to gambling by consumer groups . 4 3 consumer organization truth in advertising reported that a dealdash television commercial shows roseanna winning a 349 kitchen mixer for less than 25 . small print explains she bid 761 times on that mixer which cost her over 456 plus the 25 price she won it for . this means she paid closer to 481 well over the stated 349 retail price . 5 both truth in advertising and consumer reports noted that dealdash s own terms of service tell users that they are likely to spend more than the retail cost for products and are unlikely to save money using the site . 5 3 finances and funding edit according to a company announcement the company was profitable in 2011 and closed a 1 million investment from venture capital firms and angel investors in the last days of december 2011 . 19 see also edit companies portal online auction references edit a b deal dash . crunchbase . retrieved august 21 2012 . startupin kova vuosi maailman suurin alallaan . kauppalehti . retrieved october 14 2016 . a b c d giorgianni anthony 30 june 2014 . bidding on penny auction sites is risky . consumer reports . retrieved 31 august 2016 . a b mayer caroline 12 may 2014 . are penny auction sites seen on tv for real . next avenue . retrieved 31 august 2016 . a b c dealdash.com . truth in advertising . 1 november 2013 . retrieved 21 august 2016 . vuoden kasvaja kasvu 430 prosenttia 34 miljoonaan . kauppalehti . retrieved october 14 2016 . huikea kasvupyr hdys 20 vuotias yritt j takoi 31 miljoonaa euroa . talousel m . retrieved october 14 2016 . this 20 year old s three year old startup did 44m in revenue last year . pando . 21 march 2013 . retrieved 21 april 2016 . obscure direct response brands dominate facebook chatter . adweek . retrieved may 24 2013 . suomalaisbr ndit fb ss nokian per ss 2 startupia . kauppalehti . retrieved october 14 2016 . dealdash reviews . dealdash reviews . dealdash . retrieved september 30 2014 . dealdashreviewed.com whois . domaintools . domaintools . retrieved september 30 2014 . haluatko ipadin 13 66 dollarilla t ll tavalla syntyi veret seisauttava kasvutarina . talousel m . retrieved october 14 2016 . dealdash how does it work . dealdash . retrieved 30 january 2016 . a b deal dash frequently asked questions . dealdash . retrieved august 21 2012 . anderson greg october 24 2011 . dealdash sees explosion of growth . arcticstartup . retrieved august 21 2012 . vilpponen antti may 5 2011 . interview with william wolfram ceo of dealdash . arcticstartup . retrieved august 21 2012 . dealdash terms of use . retrieved december 9 2013 . vilpponen antti january 11 2012 . dealdash recruiting talent with strong growth and 1m investment . arcticstartup . retrieved august 21 2012 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dealdash & oldid 744297345 categories online companies of the united statesonline auction websites2009 establishments in minnesotahidden categories articles with topics of unclear notability from august 2016all articles with topics of unclear notability navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages 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