“There can be a million reasons not to want to sell your objects, but to give them away. We can’t do it, it has to go fast, we have to come and pick it up at my house…” , explains Hakim Baka, the founder of the Bordeaux start-up Geev. Often presented as “The good corner of the free”, the company offers donations to individuals. And his development is impressive. Launched five years ago, it enabled the donation of 16 million objects in total, of which almost half (7 million) in 2021. An acceleration due, according to the application, to the phases of confinement or curfew, where the closing of stores and the desire to sort people confined to their homes, have accelerated exchanges. They are currently spinning 700,000 donations per month. Something to create, as Hakim Baka calls it a “Geev reflex”, used by 3.5 million people.
And by walking on the home page of the application, we find (really) everything. A watch, a candle, a broomstick, a napkin holder, a trivet… “There is no hierarchy of values, whatever the means, everyone can give something”. Including, since 2019, food, if not expired and which represents about 10% of donations. The largest French application of donations is thus found in competition with second-hand sites (paying for them), Le bon coin, or Vinted, for clothes.
A credit system to prevent abuse
And on Geev, to collect you have to give : when registering, the new user receives three credits, represented by bananas, which authorize him to contact three donors. Then, to earn credits, you have to donate items yourself, “to avoid that 1% of people, the most responsive online recover 90% of the products” emphasizes the founder.
And for those who don’t want to donate items, but only browse online, there is the subscription option, at 4 euros per month, or 25 euros per year, which allows unlimited contact with sellers. Subscriptions make up half of Geev’s revenue, the other being made up of advertisements. Pending the development of a novelty, a model that allows professionals to donate unsold products. Launched in 2017 at the start-up incubator in Darwin, on the right bank of Bordeaux, Geev moved to rue Fondaudège, with a fairly stable team of around 15 employees, responsible for checking and validating online ads.