~D

I have yet to actually use SpotScout’s system, but on paper our company does look pretty similar to theirs. Given how new the concept of “online parking marketplaces” is, it makes sense for several companies to be duking it out over the same turf. One example would be Excite and Yahoo competing to be the premier “web portal” in the 90s.

There are a few smaller differences.

SpotScout seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on their cell phone application.

We’re going to perfect our parking marketplace through our website before branching out with a mobile app, hopefully this summer. The idea is that the website can be useful for finding parking for ballgames, shows, planned nights out, etc. Once we have the kinks worked out, a mobile app will enable people to find parking on the way to their destination.

They are really good at getting media coverage, even though they have yet to publicly launch a product.

We’ve gotten some minor press on the web, won’t be actively promoting ParkWhiz until we launch our parking marketplace. I don’t like hearing how great something is, only to find out it’s not yet available.

Their website also makes reference to finding street parking — the idea seems to be that somebody leaving a parking spot can tell the system that it is now empty, and then someone using SpotScout will be directed to the now-empty spot.

This idea seems susceptible to a lot of problems. What incentive is there to notify spotscout that you’re leaving a space? What happens when a non-SpotScout user parks there? How does this fit with the reservable parking spots in the system? I’m eager to see how they approach these questions.

In the end it comes down to implementation. I’m looking forward to the launch of our parking marketplace, as well as SpotScout’s, so that people can compare products, not descriptions.