Two Singaporeans just launched an online marketplace just for books

We’re no strangers to online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, where we can find pretty much anything we’re looking for. Otherwise, there’s the at-first-rather-confusing Chinese site Taobao and the local mobile and online consumer marketplace we’ve all come to love, Carousell. While these are all well and good, it’s always better to have something that’s catered to a specific interest. Earlier this month, local vinyl interest site #Vinyloftheday launched a new digital marketplace for music lovers, wax enthusiasts and record collectors. And now, there’s a new platform for book lovers.

Enter Barterli, a new community app to fill the gap for book lovers in Singapore. If you’ve found yourself hoarding way too many books, this fuss-free app can help you shuffle your book collection by selling or bartering your old ones to make room for new books. Think or Barterli as the Carousell for books. Just like how you would sell a piece of clothing on Carousell, the steps you need to take to put your book up for sale, trading or bartering are just as simple. All you need to do is to scan the barcode at the back of the book, confirm the entry and note down the condition of the book and name your preferred meet-up location. Alternatively, you can manually input the details. The app’s really new, which means the community is still very small. However, there are already about 2,000 books such as Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and Assassin’s Creed by Oliver Bowden. 

The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Not convinced? Here’s a quick tutorial video.