Business Unusual

Bots are often the reason sale items appear and sell out almost instantly This story begins with the latest Xbox that looks like a small fridge, Microsoft the makers of the Xbox said that if they could win a Twitter battle of brands they would turn the meme fridge into reality and after winning the contest in April released the mini fridges for a limited sales run in October. Lots of people wanted one, most did not manage to get one, but quite a few were seen for sale on auction sites at much higher prices.  The fridges were not bought by fans, but by a new kind of middleman that uses bot to buy high demand items to sell for a profit. Xbox has since made the fridge available again from December; those sales too seem to be plagued by bot purchases.  Guest: Colin Cullis | Product Owner at Primedia Broadcasting  Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on UnsplashSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.