TheFind launches “buying engine,” product search from 500,000 stores

October 14, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler | Comments |
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TheFind, a Mountain View, Calif-based startup that applies machine learning and semantic search to shopping, says comparison buying sites only skim the surface of all the millions of products out there on the web.

So it’s launching a “buying engine” today that crawls half a million stores for products and coupons. The site shows reviews alongside products and highlights coupons. It attaches store information in a pop-up that shows the sellers trust and security ratings. There is also a “green” search for environmentally conscious products.

“The truth of why none of the other comparison shopping sites have ultimately become successful brands is because they don’t offer everyone,” said Ron Levi, the vice president of product for TheFind. “When you’re only showing 10 or 15 stores out of hundreds, it’s just not comprehensive.”

TheFind is backed by at least $26.5 million in three rounds of funding from Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Levi said the site has 13.5 million unique visitors a month and hit cash flow profitability in December of last year.

The company is one of many comparison shopping sites we covered way back in 2007. But its competitors, like Shopping.com (owned by eBay), Shopzilla (owned by Scripps) and Pricegrabber (bought by Experian), aren’t independent. The company earns revenue from affiliate fees, so when a user actually buys a product, TheFind earns a small portion of that. It also earns income from clicks when users are driven to other comparison shopping sites.
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Photo of Kim-Mai Cutler

About the Author, Kim-Mai Cutler

Kim-Mai was born and raised a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family. After attending UC Berkeley, Kim-Mai worked for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires. Follow her on Twitter at @kimmaicutler, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Thanks for this update.The buying engine is looking great online service.Hope I get enough variety for any product.
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  • Retail Exec
    How many of these sites does anyone really need? And is "comprehensiveness" really what's needed here? Is that really what people need? Every new 'shopping site' adds incrementally less value to the user. This presents the classic "Paradox of Choice" problem for consumers - especially when buying a product where the price differences are minor in absolute terms.

    What people need isn't more choice. What they need is the right choice where value - not merely price - can accurately be assessed. The hard problem is not more and more data feed mgt but rather decision-support. And frankly, I've not seen one of the sites - least of which the manufacturers themselves - actually help in that regard.

    I think the players would do well to rethink the web 1.0 mindset and focus instead on helping users make better decisions - ones that reduce product returns and reduce customer satisfaction. Sizing data, shipping policies, stocking fees, warranties, etc. all these things aid in assessing value. The product price is often only a small component as to why people trust retailer X vs. Y.
  • the find rocks! there is no way the little guys can compete with the find.. kind of like when blockbuster moves in and takes out all of the mom and pop video stores..
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