The Web site Uloop offers Mississippi State University students a new, exclusive marketplace for collegiate needs.
Uloop CEO Corey Cleek said Uloop was formed in the Silicon Valley area three years ago by a group of Web developers who wanted to see an online marketplace built specifically for college students to meet the practical needs college students have every day: connecting for textbooks, carpools, jobs, housing, buying and selling cars, tickets, laptops and other items.
Cleek said Uloop has launched at Mississippi State this semester.
“There have been over 100 students from Mississippi State who have visited Uloop this week,” Cleek said. “We hope to see many more Mississippi State students visit Uloop in the coming days.”
Cleek said Uloop is growing every day, and at this time, there are 500,000 college students, 1,000 employers and 1,000 housing and apartment providers on the Web site.
Uloop student brand ambassador and Marketing major Amanda Wood said their campaign at MSU started in mid December and the current campaign is all about textbooks.
“Particularly for textbooks, it’s a much cheaper way to buy a book than from the bookstore,” Wood said. “If you are worried about it being the wrong edition, like if you are buying it on Amazon, if you get it from here [Uloop] you know another state student has used it.”
Account manager of Uloop’s marketing agency Ann Garrison said the process of selling and buying books on Uloop is extremely simple.
“All you need to do is click on “post an item” and the site will give you step by step instructions on how to post your book,” Garrison said. “If you enter an ISBN number, Uloop will locate an image of the book as well as provide a description. Once you are finished and submit your posting, you simply wait for other Uloop users to contact you about purchasing the book.”
Wood also said there were about 85,000 textbooks posted last year.
She said Uloop will next be campaigning about the job postings on the site and then in March and April they will do a housing and roommate campaign.
Wood said she has used the Web site to search for part time jobs, not only in Starkville, but a summer job in her hometown of Memphis.
Garrison said she uses Uloop often as an employer to post job listings and it is a great tool to learn more about your campus as well as interact with other MSU students.
“Uloop is a great way to buy and sell items, find a new roommate, search for a part time or full time job, organize a carpool for a ride home, post upcoming campus events or start a conversation with other MSU students,” Garrison said. “There are also coupons and business listings on the site that can save you money around town.”
Uloop is a little different from other marketplace type sites because it is only for users who have an “.edu” e-mail address. After signing up for a Uloop account with a university email address, a confirmation number is sent to that account, making the MSU Uloop site only for MSU students, faculty and staff. After logging in and confirming the email address, users are free to post in any category on the site.
Garrison said the biggest difference between Uloop and other marketplace sites is who is allowed to be on the site.
“It is extremely secure because you know that you are only corresponding with fellow students at MSU,” Garrison said.
Wood said Uloop is often compared to marketplace sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, but Uloop is unique.
“Instead of just being able to search by city like Craigslist, it is really school specific,” Wood said. “So you can find items specifically for MSU.”
Wood said Uloop is also different because your postings stay up as long as you want them to.
Wood said she encourages students to try Uloop because it is a free site and a good resource.
“The site is as good as we make it so if you are wary about using it because you don’t think there are that many books on there yet, posting your own in order to build up that user base is what’s going to make this work,” Wood said.