Kidimami

What did it do?

Kidimami was a Turkish start-up that described itself as a marketplace built by parents for parents. Families could list new or good-condition baby, children's and parenting products for sale and buy from other families' listings. Payments went through the platform, and the money for confirmed orders was passed on to sellers via Kidimami.

Why did it shut down?

Kidimami gave no reason in its closure announcement. According to a statement published on the company's website and reported by egirişim, operations ended on 30 June 2017, and from 1 July no buying or selling was possible on the platform. Only about a month before the closure, co-founder Canan Döşlü had appeared on an egirişim broadcast talking about the start-up, which suggests the decision was taken quickly. It could be said that managing trust, product checks and low basket values all at once is hard in second-hand children's products, but the sources do not confirm what part these played in Kidimami's closure; this is an interpretation.

The story

Baby and children's products have a short life. A pushchair, a toy or an item of clothing is outgrown within a few months, but is often still perfectly usable. Kidimami was set up to circulate this surplus between families. According to the company's own statement, the start-up was founded in 2016; Internet Archive records show that a teaser page was live on the domain at the end of 2015.

The model was a marketplace. According to the site's own description, Kidimami had been built by parents for parents and acted as an intermediary for buying and selling new or good-condition baby, children's and parenting products. The platform also had a mobile app. egirişim presented the start-up as a service supporting a sharing economy between families. In May 2017 co-founder Canan Döşlü was talking about Kidimami on an egirişim video broadcast.

Shortly after that broadcast, the company published a farewell message on its website. According to the message, operations were ending as of 30 June 2017, and after 1 July it would no longer be possible to buy or sell products through Kidimami. Completing orders not yet shipped, refunding buyers for cancellations and returns, and passing on payment for confirmed orders to sellers would continue throughout July. egirişim announced the closure in August 2017 and listed it among the highlights of the week.

No reason was given for the closure. Nor are there any public figures on investment, users or transaction volume. TutumluAnne, which had been operating in the same space since 2013, would also close a few years later, in 2022, citing competition from big players.

Kidimami's story is short but familiar: the need for second-hand children's products is real, but turning that need into a transaction system that is safe and pays its own way is another matter.

Lessons for founders

• In a second-hand marketplace, look not at the number of listings but at how many of them actually turn into sales.
• If you decide to close, announce a timetable for completing pending orders, refunds and seller payments; this last step is where trust is preserved.
• In trust-based categories such as children's products, build the cost of product checks and returns into your unit economics from the start.

Sources

1. Kidimami ceases operations (egirişim, 2017-08-09)
2. Kidimami: a marketplace for new and second-hand baby and children's products (egirişim, 2017-05-29)
3. Week in review: Kidimami closes, investments in App Samurai and 11Sight, Lonca and more (egirişim, 2017-08-13)
4. Kidimami home page, Internet Archive snapshot (Internet Archive, 2015-11-07)

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