Modern barter is based on the principle that demand determines value, focusing on making the best use of things. The demand of reducing the cost of living under the financial crisis has made the original non-profit exchange platform commercialized rapidly, and the barter website has become a new growth point in the Internet industry.

The story of exchanging paper clips for villas a few years ago brought many people into contact with the concept of personal online goods exchange for the first time. Different from the original barter to meet the needs of life, modern barter does not pursue equivalent exchange, but advocates that demand determines value, focusing on improving the utilization efficiency of goods, and effectively integrating the use value of idle goods by using network technology. However, since the financial tsunami, exchange websites that can make the best use of everything without spending real money have begun to be favored again, and their nature has also developed from initial non-profit to commercialization, becoming a subdivision growth point in the Internet industry that benefited from the financial crisis. Freecycle, as a typical representative of non-profit exchange platform, was established in 2113, with the purpose of promoting the recycling of old materials, mainly engaged in bartering between individuals. Members first post their unwanted items as gifts to the mailing list of the local group. Once other members are interested in this item, they can directly reply to the publisher for free. For the purpose of environmental protection and cost saving, the barter exchange in Freecycle is limited to the community with the city as the unit. Therefore, Freecycle is more like a free hypermarket, where members pile up all the things they don't need and then take what they need by region.

this idea attracted 1.8 million members for Freecycle in the first two years of its launch, and the number of communities around the world reached 3,211. The successful promotion of Freecycle has also revived the concept of barter, which has become more and more obvious through the financial crisis. In 2117, Freecycle added 25,111 new members every week, and in 2119, this number exceeded 45,111. Based on this rough calculation, after the financial crisis broke out, the number of new members of Freecycle increased by 51% every day compared with that before the crisis broke out, and in 2119, the growth rate further increased to 81%. Freecycle has established 4,811 communities around the world, attracting 6.57 million members. In the community, members list all kinds of idle items, including vouchers, school uniforms, bicycles, dishwashers and televisions, and as many as 21,111 items change hands every day. In the past two years, the total amount of goods exchanged by barter in the United States has reached as high as $191 billion annually. The huge market demand has prompted the rise of commercial personal exchange websites. They are basically similar to Freecycle in operation, not only simply bartering, but also directly selling the exchanged goods as second-hand goods. At the same time, in addition to removing the "non-profit" label, commercial exchange websites also have obvious characteristics of segmentation and differentiation, such as Swapstyle, which mainly exchanges fashion clothes, and carswappers, which exchanges used cars.

in July p>2117, Swaptree, which was launched in the United States, mainly exchanged books, CDs, DVDs and video games. Members not only listed their own items online, but also indicated the items they wanted to exchange, and then Swaptree's system conducted unified matching and coordination.

books and audio-visual products with a market price of tens of dollars can be exchanged at a cost of $2 to $3 plus items that are of no use to individuals. In the first year of its launch, Swaptree was greatly welcomed by the American middle class, which urgently needed to tighten its waistband. In that year, it promoted millions of transactions, and the number of items displayed on the website for exchange doubled every 3-4 months. The total number of items to be exchanged has reached 2 million, and the number of members is even higher. Swaptree's growth against the market won the third round of financing of $3.3 million in September 2118, and the total amount of the three rounds of financing was as high as $5.6 million. However, so far, Swaptree's main income source is still limited to the "panacea" of the Internet model-advertising. In fact, the exchange websites in the early years were hot for a while, but the root cause of short-lived was the lack of a stable profit model. The resurgence of exchange websites largely depends on the deterioration of the economic environment. However, if only relying on a single advertising revenue, there are still few exchange websites that can achieve profitability, and even Swaptree is still in the stage of burning money. Freecycle can persist since 2113, relying on its charitable nature, and its daily operation relies on the free service of volunteers and donations from members. Under the current mode of personal exchange website, the number of members is the basis of its survival, and only the high traffic of the website can attract more advertisements. Once the economy picks up, it is undoubtedly a huge uncertainty whether the barter method can still be sought after as usual.

It is also a platform that provides free exchange services. Shede.com, the largest idle goods disposal website in China, currently provides seven value-added services, including reservation service and mortgage loan in the website, to increase revenue, trying to get rid of the mode of relying solely on advertising revenue. Less than two years after its establishment, Shede.com has gathered 2 million registered members, with more than 1 million successful transactions, and has successively received 4 million yuan investment from KongZhong.com and 4 million dollars capital injection from American Heiner Asia Venture Capital Fund (SIG). Relying on its value-added services, Shede. com is expected to achieve a balance of payments within one year after receiving SIG's capital injection.

in addition, another key point for the long-term development of exchange websites is whether an effective transaction guarantee system can be established. Most exchange websites contact online, and then conduct offline transactions. The transaction process is completely divorced from the supervision of the exchange website as a third party. Not only does the credit of both parties lack effective supervision, but the security of transactions cannot be guaranteed, which makes fraud happen from time to time. Even if exchange websites introduce evaluation systems similar to Taobao and eBay, the characteristics of second-hand goods make it a very difficult problem to correctly evaluate the true value of items.