How to estimate local bitcoin market?

[Beerwizzard]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

[merchantofzeny]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

I'm no statistician but I'd probably go around forums like this, as well as groups on FB to check how many people from my country are active there. Surveys might also work, though how it would be done would probably depend on the nature of the business. If I have a physical store, I'd probably get the employees to ask the customers if they have paid in bitcoins before in other establishments, as they are paying for the things they bought.

It's not the size of the local bitcoin market that matters but what portion of that you transact with.

[webtricks]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

Now this is the biggest advantage of Bitcoin as mean of payment that it doesn't require any other expense then simple BTC wallet and address on both side.
About accessing local market, there isn't any feasible way but you can make enquiry on your own level by conducting small surveys or getting feedback from your existing customers whether they use Bitcoins or will they find it viable or complicated to pay with Bitcoin next time. After all they are your end target about whom you concerned.

[Milo_Kidd]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

I know its hard to stimate bitcoin cause its price is always changing. But if I will find out that its price is raises up, thats the time that I'll trade my bitcoin. But we cant make sure if when its price will raises up or when its price will be the most. I just simply stimating if its price is in the higher one.

[Iranus]

I can't say that it's worth bothering to find out.  BitPay makes it pretty easy to accept and has a 1% charge for a shop to receive fiat into their bank account (drastically lower than PayPal) and you can also keep Bitcoin or a mixture of both.

As for physical stores, BTC isn't really very good for that IMO but BitPay and Coinbase both have Point of Sale systems.  Blockchain.info also has a merchant app.

It really couldn't be much simpler to accept Bitcoin.  To know if it's worth it, the main thing you have to consider is whether people's confusion about what Bitcoin is or how to spend it will slow down your business.  Other than that, it's pretty easy.

[d5000]

There are some questions you can use as a "base" to investigate and estimate local usage (apart from social media activity like it already was proposed by others in the thread):

- are there any Bitcoin events in your region?
- are there LocalBitcoins (or other "marketplace" sites) ads for your city or region?
- is there already someone near you at https://coinmap.org?

Very likely, if you're not living in a "Bitcoin hotspot", then the Bitcoin user base in you region will be pretty small. In a ordinary one-million-inhabitants city you can expect some 500-1000 users at most. If your shop is well connected with local and regional traffic (trains, highways ...) then you could try to get clients from neighboring cities, because a real Bitcoiner will travel some time to use his precious digital gold

[Beerwizzard]

- is there already someone near you at https://coinmap.org?

Damn, I've got 4 spots in my location
But is there any chance to estimate the amount or btc stored by people in my city? Not the number of people. It seems like making a survey seems like the only option or there is something else?

[el kaka22]

- is there already someone near you at https://coinmap.org?

Damn, I've got 4 spots in my location
But is there any chance to estimate the amount or btc stored by people in my city? Not the number of people. It seems like making a survey seems like the only option or there is something else?

Yes you are right, survey is very mandatory for calculating and collecting some information about a specific thing. But in this case the question is different. Survey is little bit difficult because nobody will tell you that how much bitcoin he has in his wallet when he bought it and would he use it till date. Because the financial position is a secret in my local city and that is the reason of unknowingness of local bitcoin market.

[Dutchyyy]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

I advised 6 local friends with business in past 15 months are in 2 cases we decided it's not worth it and in 4 it's worth it.
People are curious. But the main criteria about adopting bitcoin to your business is - how technical knowledge have your average client. The second criteria - is your product/service online or offline.

For example it's OK to pay your restaurant bill with BTC, but it's not cost effective to do it for your morning coffee. 
It's fine to integrate it in your hosting billing system, but it's waste of time for a baby store.

It's case dependent.

[aeternus]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

It depends on the business you have, if what you are selling can be send all over the world then your local market is not really important, but if what you want to sell can only be sold to locals then an analysis could make sense but at the moment I think that unless you can accept bitcoin for free then it is not worth to develop any app for it.

[Schuyler]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

If I have a small local business and if bitcoin legal in my country I will do survey for my location.But it still depends on my product and services. I will make research also just to make sure that many people know and use bitcoin or accept bitcoin as payment,so I'm not going to lose it.

Other entrepreneurs bypass market research because they fear it will be too expensive. With all the other startup costs you’re facing, it’s not easy to justify spending money on research that will only prove what you knew all along: Your product is a winner.

[bitgolden]

Sup guys!
Imagine that you have a small local business and you are thinking about accepting bitcoin. If you do it you might have some extra expenses (like developing of  any app or website, extra ads, whatever). To make sure that you will benefit from it you should at least know how many people in your town are using bitcoin. So how would you estimate the local bitcoin market?

It depends on the business you have, if what you are selling can be send all over the world then your local market is not really important, but if what you want to sell can only be sold to locals then an analysis could make sense but at the moment I think that unless you can accept bitcoin for free then it is not worth to develop any app for it.

Absolutely! I think for the one trading and investing in international market should be least bothered about local market. But for the one sitting in local business market, it is really an important thing to do. I think the one dealing on the daily basis while sitting in the local market knows much better than anyone else who just assume the things by sitting outside.

[kevpantof]

There are some questions you can use as a "base" to investigate and estimate local usage (apart from social media activity like it already was proposed by others in the thread):

- are there any Bitcoin events in your region?
- are there LocalBitcoins (or other "marketplace" sites) ads for your city or region?
- is there already someone near you at https://coinmap.org?

Very likely, if you're not living in a "Bitcoin hotspot", then the Bitcoin user base in you region will be pretty small. In a ordinary one-million-inhabitants city you can expect some 500-1000 users at most. If your shop is well connected with local and regional traffic (trains, highways ...) then you could try to get clients from neighboring cities, because a real Bitcoiner will travel some time to use his precious digital gold

Unfortunately in my local market many people do not know what really bitcoin is, what are the values and importance of bitcoin, where to buy, how to use etc. that’s why in my local market the use of bitcoin is almost nil because of the unawareness of bitcoin.

The reason is that I am living in a small city where the people are of average life slandered Therefor it is difficult for me to estimate the local bitcoin market.