Student website Unibubble proves to be popular

A Warwick student-run website has taken the University by a storm, gaining over 1,600 users in just nine days.

Unibubble, which was set up on 17 January, currently has 1,625 registered users and 585 live advertisements.

The site is described as a marketplace “for Warwick students, by Warwick students”, and allows users to interact with each other in many different ways, including finding future housemates, selling unwanted items such as books and even advertising jobs.

Unibubble.co.uk was founded by three Warwick students: first-year Management students Stefan van der Fluit, Shi Jie Looi (CJ) and fourth-year Engineering student Kartik Joshi.

Advertising and responding to advertisements on the site is entirely free and students contact each other via email to organise transactions.

The trio are currently funding Unibubble themselves but hope to gain investors and advertisers in the very near future.

Van der Fluit said student response has been overwhelmingly positive: “I managed to sell a bike on Unibubble within two hours and a friend of mine even managed to sell an ironing board! I’ve also advertised piano lessons.”

Unibubble users have to enter their Warwick e-mail address to register in order to ensure all members are Warwick University students.

Second-year Comparative American Studies student Bethany White likes the idea: “I learned about the site this week and I think it’s really good. I like the fact that it’s focused on Warwick and only Warwick students can use it.”

Joshi said he first had the idea in his first year. “I never really had the time to create it as I knew marketing would be very difficult. I also wanted to concentrate on other projects.

“In the summer of 2011, I started to programme the site. I was then approached by Stefan and CJ and it was their proactive attitude which I admired.”

Van der Fluit said he also came up with a similar idea whilst in his last year in high school. He then discussed the idea with friend CJ who suggested it should be extended further than just books. The pair then contacted experienced web designer Joshi through the Warwick Incubator network.

The three founders hope to extend the website to other universities, starting with Coventry and then moving to London.

Joshi said Warwick Entrepreneurs helped them launch the marketing campaign for the site. “We also use social media and offline marketing techniques to target the university population. We rely heavily on word of mouth too.”

“I like how it advertises houses and flatmates wanted and jobs as well as actual stuff,” said second-year Biomedical Science student Katy Braddick. “It looks very professional and I like the featured listings bit at the top. My only criticism is you cannot be sure the person you are meeting to exchange items is genuine.”

Third-year Engineering and Business Studies student Fahad Sabeeh Hussain said, “As an International student, who has been studying at Warwick for almost three years, I have accumulated a lot of books and electronic items which I cannot take back with me after I graduate. This is a great way for me to dispose of all the things I can’t take home with me and make some money as well.”

Joshi has been creating websites since he was 12, whilst Van der Fluit set up a web design business when he was 16 and has ran a number of companies since then.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” he said, “I believe that anything is worth trying… if you don’t try it you don’t know whether it will succeed or not.”