• The Bordeaux start-up Geev organizes the donation of objects and food between individuals.

  • Since 2017, its platform has recorded 10 million donations.

    It continues its development and works with large retailers to raise awareness of donation when purchasing products.

This brand new blender that stays in the back of your closet, the toys of your now teenage child, or the clothes that you have not put on for a while and that are still on your hands. No time or no inclination to sell them? All these still usable objects have their place on Geev, a Bordeaux platform that organizes the donation of objects between individuals. It works via an entirely free application, or a small subscription (3.99 euros per month without commitment or 24.99 euros per year) which gives access to credits and priorities on certain objects. Since 2017, ten million items have found a second life thanks to this free classifieds site.

“We noticed a vacuum of use between the sale and the recycling center, bulky items or the trash,” explains Hakim Baka, co-founder of Geev.

Instinctively, people who are trying to get rid of it turn to the sale and if it fails, they try to give but only to people around them.

Geev was born from the idea that we must go further and offer to give objects to a larger number of people by creating a “donation marketplace”.

The principle was first tested successfully with local communities on social networks, for about a year and a half.

In 2017, the two co-founders based in Bordeaux launched themselves with the donation of objects and two years later, they added foodstuffs, with the sole criterion that they were still consumable.

Give rather than sell

When we are busy, moving or emptying a house, the donation has the merit of being faster.

The motivations are also different.

“Some prefer the gift because it is more virtuous in the human experience.

There is no negotiation, no money, so when people meet they smile, says Hakim Baka.

The social reward is therefore more important to them than the financial reward.

"

On average, 75% of the objects posted on Geev find takers at the national level.

And in Paris and Bordeaux, one of the most active cities, we are close to 100%.

Be careful, it is not a question of using Geev as a recycling channel.

"A very old sofa in good condition will go away, but not a recent sofa that is gutted," warns the co-founder.

Many women and young people

The profile of the people who frequent the site is quite feminine and 25-45 year olds are over-represented. “The 18-25 year olds give very little but recover a lot,” observes Hakim Baka. Among them, there are students who have few means who want to equip themselves and are not very careful about the fact that the furniture is mismatched, for example, they favor use value. »Young mothers exchange a lot of childcare items that change a lot as the children grow older. All social levels are represented on Geev: there are senior executives who adhere to an anti-waste logic and do not care to sell because they are not looking for additional income but also people in great precariousness who regularly collect food. , for example.

On the platform, clothing, small appliances, cultural products (video games, books, etc.) and childcare are the most donated.

Items with a high market value but bulky are not always the ones that quickly find buyers.

Pianos, for example, which need to be transported, stay in line a little longer than other products.

Offer the donation at the time of purchase

The site already has three million users but the development potential is still significant if we are to believe the co-founder.

"Le Bon Coin took fifteen years to get into the habits of households", recalls Hakim Baka, with ambition.

To develop its notoriety, Geev has already approached distribution professionals (Cdiscount, Auchan) to make consumers aware of the gift at the time of purchase.

When you buy a piece of furniture or household appliance, the idea is to have the possibility of giving away the one you replace.

About fifteen people already work for the start-up headquartered in Bordeaux.

She does not intend to stop there and is also thinking of international development.

The gift, a good riddance more and more in vogue

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