Auction application for Facebook, Whyteboard raises seed money /Venture Now

Whyteboard allocates new shares to Samurai Incubate Fund II. Whyteboard was founded on March 28 and is now developing "f auction", an application to allow Facebook users to buy and sell goods by auction model.

The founder says that there is no such a full-scale auction services on Facebook. It charges commission of 5% for sellers and 10% for buyers.

Alpha version will be launched at the end of April. The official version, planned to launch in this summer, will provide API which enables to display auction items in users' own Facebook Pages or blogs.

The service is offered only in English. The startup aims to provide the service for global market.

Venture Now 4/12/2011

memo

• It is rare that a startup from Japan provide only English service.
• Social commerce on Facebook is expected to be one of the hottest area for startups this year. It is very interesting to see how the startup differentiate from competitors around the world.