The story goes that a young computer consultant named Sam Morgan started Trade Me after a frustrating experience buying a heater for his chilly Wellington flat. Sam was fed up with other websites that didn't cater well to Kiwis, and he reckoned he could offer something better.
At the time, the concept was pretty strange – buying something you’d never seen, from someone you’d never met. In the early 2000s, viewing a car, job or property online was a foreign concept to most New Zealanders. Now it’s the norm.