Available in English Area served United States | Country of origin United States Key people Rachel Barge (PR) | |
Headquarters San Francisco, California Founder(s) Andy Ruben, Carl Tashian, Adam Werbach | ||
Yerdle is a smartphone app based service for exchanging used goods, created and managed by a San Francisco-based company with the same name. Instead of direct trading, Yerdle is based on the pay it forward principle; User A uploads information on an object they possess and wish to give to someone else. User B can then get the object in exchange for credits which are paid to User A, who can then use these credits to get something else from User C. Users can receive a certain number of credits when they first sign up, and can also pay for additional credits if their balance is insufficient to purchase an item.
Compared to transactions in The Freecycle Network, Yerdle transactions are not neighborhood-based; Yerdle encourages users to send their goods by mail to other users. However, users can also coordinate in-person pickup with buyers in their area.
Registration is free as of December 2014, but only available to US residents.
Yerdle has announced partnerships with Patagonia and Levi Strauss & Co.
Criticism
In an article at Salon, Andrew Leonard criticizes Yerdle for its use of the word "free"; while the transactions does not involve conventional currencies, Leonard argues Yerdle is a market place like any other, the difference being only that proprietary "credits" are used instead of money. Leonard also criticized Yerdle for announcing its plans to eventually make it possible for users to buy credits for use in the service, effectively making its service similar to any other regular auction site.