How do online marketplace platforms acquire an initial user-base?

Question

Hi HN. I am developing an online platform, where users can find other users to perform a specific service for them; similar to Fiverr but a lot more niche.These types of platform can only work if there is a healthy portion of users that provide services and a decent portion of users who want those services.As such, how do you launch such a platform with zero/little users?You could acquire the service providers prior to launching (e.g.: via a pre-lease sign up page and a marketing campaign to go alongside) but that has its own issues: for starters, no-one will have any reviews, and from a technical perspective you'd have to implement a way for those users to complete their profiles before launch.I have seen suggestions of faking a user base, but that does not sound appealing to me and I am not sure of its legality.

onion2k · Accepted Answer

You launch with very little content and build from there by marketing directly to the audience that you need to join, and hope they're receptive. It helps to have a good reputation with one side of your market beforehand.Also note that most marketplaces take a relatively long time to really get going. For example, Etsy has been going for 14 years.