The first volume of the askmarkets magazine, including: - Let the Market Decide, With Information Inside (overview of the problem addressed by the solution at hand) - One Stop Shop to Your Information Marketplace (what and how) - Use Case I (retailer) & Use Case II (marketing) - The people (behind the askmarkets curtains)

1. the askmarkets magazine
May 15, 2009
Pulling the pieces
apart is risky.
Why don’t you
just put them
together?
Aggregate
distributed
information with
the power of
markets.
Let the Market Decide,
with information inside.
the source, namely those who contribute insights of value on
Overflow, of
possess the scattered bits of the topics of your interest.
information. Then filter, and
information, not any middlemen Now, you are able to turn
digest. You do this, every
around. And push approaches your questions into markets,
single day. Your coworkers,
(call it surveys, or meetings) tend their possible answers into stocks
too. Each one of us gets
not to work. What missing is an and finally let anyone put their
exposed to a unique blend of
engaging, yet less biased way to (play) money where his mouth is.
information, from both
pull this information out, then You may also call it a friendly
people and data sources.
filtering and balancing it, in real bet, or just a game; in any case,
Then we enhance it, with our
time, to finally give shape to an it’s equally fun, and useful, yet
own experiences and
aggregated insight. more engaging and less biased
knowledge, to finally shape a
Guess what. There is a than every other tool you have
unique personal insight. Yes,
solution, and it’s simpler than ever tried.
there lies a lot of value, but
what you may imagine. Actually, Most importantly, our
how do we come up with
you use it, in various different marketplaces works as probably
collective insights? If this
settings, on a daily basis. Enter the most efficient tool for
stands as an unsolved
askmarkets services. And set up information aggregation out
problem for your
your own, private or public there. So, you’d better stop
organization, we think we
marketplace, within a minute. wasting resources, and potential.
came up with a decent
Then, invite your fellow workers, Collective insights and your
solution.
You need to aggregate partners, and clients to join. Or information marketplace are
information and insights, not just anyone who you think may now just a few clicks away, at
collect raw data. Directly from askmarkets.
1

2. THEaskmarketsMAGAZINE May 15, 2009
One Stop Shop
to your information marketplace
What is it about? How does it work?
Where do you go to find out the best answer It’s simple, really.
to the question “What is the value of Walmart?” 1. You enter askmarkets services and create
You probably go check it’s current stock price, your very own information marketplace, in the
right? What about the next football match winner? subdomain, say http://acme.askmarkets.com, or
You typically turn to the current betting odds. else. The whole process takes up to a minute, while
Expected price of, let’s say, oil in the next quarter? you gain full admin rights and customization
It’s the futures market. Or even the value of an old options (change all colors, add your own logo etc).
gadget of yours? You just enter the local flea 2. You invite your employees and partners,
market, it goes on. your clients or whoever may provide valuable
When it comes to aggregating all of the information, to join. Marketplaces can be private
information out there, or finding the most accurate (invite-only), or public (open to everyone). Each
of estimations, the answer always includes the user who signs up receives 10,000 of our play-
term “market” as its second element. And this fact money currency to start trading.
is anything but random. Over time, markets have 3. You turn your critical questions into
proven to be the most efficient mechanism for markets, tight to a future event. Potential answers
aggregation and transmission of information. are the stocks traded within this market, while
Dynamic and evolutionary by nature, markets their current price indicates their probability of
typically tap on self-selection and proper incentives turning correct.
to leverage on collective intelligence, or what we 4. So, if anyone considers an answer as
are lately referring to as the wisdom of crowds. underpriced, he is able to buy some shares of the
However, when it comes to topics different corresponding stock, under the prospect of future
than the ones described above, no similar solution profit. By this, the stock price goes up, and the
exists. Let’s say that you are very much interested market communicates the relevant information.
in your sales figures for the next month, or the Both trading into a market, or creating a brand
probability of meeting a critical deadline, or any new market are two-step straightforward process.
other critical question tight to a future event, not 5.This is it. Your very own information
covered by existing and well-positioned market marketplace is up and running, consisting of the
institutions. Where are such markets? We think we traders you picked, and the market questions you
have come up with a proper solution, within and your traders shaped. Collective insights are
askmarkets. now at your fingertips, you may leave all the rest to
askmarkets.
Markets bring
people together,
transmitting
information
through prices.
And askmarkets
is the simplest
way to put
market power at
your fingertips.
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3. THEaskmarketsMAGAZINE May 15, 2009
Use Case I
Retailer
Retailex Corp. is a very healthy and profitable The company is using a couple of methods to
organization that imports, stores, distributes and forecast its sales and manage its logistics in a more
finally sells a wide range of products. With capable efficient way. The tools in use track the weekly or
and experienced employees, next to an extended even daily sales using an advanced ERP (which
network of salesmen and distributors, costed a really significant amount of money) and
Retailex is a well-structured and efficiently attempt to extrapolate the given data to come up
functioning enterprise, optimized to deliver great with proper estimations, while surveys of the
products to its customers and value to its managers’ perceptions are performed quarterly to
shareholders. Digging into its main cost drivers, get a feeling about what’s coming. However, it
one comes up with inventory and transportation seems that these approaches do not meet the
costs throughout the supply chain, the company’s needs. Shortage of various products is a
management of which finally ends up to the usual case in many points of sale, while other
estimation of future demand and the products remain devalued by the big inventory.
communication of early indicators that may arise These facts equal to opportunities and money
across the various parts of the chain. being not wisely spent, while the uncertainty of
the given economic situation is expected to further
highlight the problem.
This is where askmarkets come into play. The
number of employees, salesmen and distributors in
If mails &
a sense stands as a powerful network, continuously
meetings used to
be the only way collecting information about the topics of interest
to involve your for the enterprise. Asking all these people about
partners in such topics, while providing sufficient motivation,
decision making,
using a simple but efficient platform, can enable
now you may rest
the collection and filtering of this vast amount of
in the shoulders
informational resources to support decision
of markets.
making.
For example, managers’ information is
limited,while monitoring data have little to do with
being proactive. At the same time, each salesman
comes in touch with a number of people each day,
shaping his mind on the top of the information he
collects. Furthermore each salesman gets in
contact with different sets of people and has
special experiences which help to come up with a
unique perspective on the topics of interest.
Finally, askmarkets enables Retailex to
aggregate the perspectives of all people across the
supply chain on the topics that matter for the
company, including sales per month, per product
or distribution point, next to products’ import and
transportation costs, or pricing. In a few words,
askmarkets serves the company as a ceaseless and
seamless filter and aggregator of the information
across the enterprise, providing real-time insights
and a significant competitive advantage for both
the day-to-day and the strategic decision making.
Wouldn’t you bet on it?
3

4. THEaskmarketsMAGAZINE May 15, 2009
Use Case II
Marketing
Marketex Corp sells some high-end products, putting
most of its efforts and budget on marketing. Echoing this
fact, the marketing department has an extended list of
liabilities, next to a really significant share in the decisions
taken across the enterprise. Among all others, the
department runs a bunch of campaigns each year, while
keeping track of the industry and competitors in various
markets, measuring customer behavior and satisfaction, also
monitoring selected performance indicators that are
considered of crucial value for the enterprise. The
department is comprised of highly experienced employees,
with a strong intuition and understanding of both the core
characteristics and latest developments in the industry.
However, it has become evident that, despite the
expertise and experience of its members, the marketing
department -and the whole company at large- is failing to
detect significant turning points in customers’ behavior and
preferences, or competitors strategic moves This is not due to
lack of focus or devotion; the company is using several
methods to get a clear view of what is happening out of its
corporate offices. Surveys, focus groups, industry reports, and
meetings, meetings, meetings, all have a prominent place in
the company’s arsenal, when it comes to supporting its
marketing decisions. However, results are not as expected;
and there are probably both the tools and their users to
blame for. The marketing manager put it like that in a recent
board of directors: “It is like either the information we
possess is very partial, or the tools we are using to filter it and
sum it up are inadequate. In my personal opinion, both of
these are true. We need a different approach.”
At the same time, Marketex enjoys a considerable
number of loyal customers, who could easily be
characterized as fans. Their passion and brand loyalty is such
that they know every Marketex product in detail, while
tracking the competitors’ moves and other evolutions in the
industry. In a sense, Marketex’s marketing department
extends to these people, too, as they largely perform what the
company needs, at a much bigger scale, cost-free, and
without any biases that may accompany such intra-enterprise
relationships. The idea is clear. Marketex needs to get this
group of people together, motivate them to contribute their
beliefs and, by appropriately aggregating these beliefs to
shape an insightful input for its decision making.
Askmarkets come to the rescue. A public marketplace is
set up, on the topics of interest for Marketex. Competitive
intelligence, efficiency of the latest campaigns, customer
satisfaction, evolution of publicly available performance
indicators, all these and other crucial topics are turned into
market questions and literally outsourced to the Marketex
community. A symbolic prize given to the 5 most efficient
traders further enhances the engagement and, a few weeks
There is passion for your products out there, why
after the launch, Marketex includes in its arsenal a valuable
don’t you leverage on the devotion and collective
tool that monitors in real time the information and
intelligence of your customers?
perceptions of hundreds of experts, providing the greatest of
insights for some really successful decisions. Still looking for
the market leader?
4

5. THEaskmarketsMAGAZINE May 15, 2009
The people
behind askmarkets
AskMarkets UnLtd was founded in 2007 to host
the works, vision and devotion of its founders George
Tziralis and Efthimios Mpothos. Our enterprise
product was launched in December 2008, gaining
global attention and coverage. The company is located
in Athens, Greece.
George Tziralis, co-founder & CEO
A fertile 5-year course on mechanical and
industrial engineering from NTUA concluded with a
thesis on attempting to forecast stock prices; as
algorithms and the challenge of making accurate
predictions captured his heart, the decision to
undertake PhD research on the field of forecasting
was a logical choice. His early quot;affairquot; in data mining
and artificial intelligence ended abruptly when he got
to know the concept of prediction markets better.
That was back in September 2005. Since then,
prediction markets had to endure his workaholic
attitude, providing a suitable outlet for his creativity
and passion (argentine tango and other fitness
activities still have to wait). Resulting from this, the
creation of askmarkets was predestined to happen: a
natural outcome of his research findings, as long as his
upbeat attitude.
Efthimios Mpothos, co-founder & CTO
Efthimios holds a 5-year bachelor in electrical and
computer engineering from NTUA and wrote his
thesis on mobile and personal communications. The
move to engineering at Siemens, which took place
immediately after graduation, finally proved not to be
compatible with his creativity, passion and open mind
for ideas. A refreshing switch back to research was
highly needed and happened a couple of years ago.
Since then, first an MSc on engineering-economic
systems and then a PhD on innovation and ideas
evaluation systems using prediction markets have kept
him busy enough, before his ideas, entrepreneurial
attitude and developing skills found a creative outlet at
askmarkets.
ASKMARKETS UNLTD Innovation is our passion and askmarkets our pride and joy.
We are committed to providing marketplace solutions that
14-16 Meletiou Vasileiou Str
work the best for you.
GR 11745 Athens, Greece
george@askmarkets.com
http://askmarkets.com