Businessman Ben Dunne says he is delighted with the response to a new website he launched last week which he hopes will become the next eBay.

Called tenderme.ie, the online noticeboard is billed as an inexpensive way of connecting buyers to suppliers and was devised by a customer Dunne met in one of the health clubs he operates around Dublin.

Dunne (59) told the Sunday Tribune: "It could be a bit like eBay in that it brings people together. If it works here, it could transfer very easily to England or America."

The site works by asking users who need a service to place a free ad on the site; suppliers who then want to offer that service get in contact by ringing a phone line costing a set price of €3, which goes to Dunne's company.

"One of the first ads we had was from a man who got three quotes for built-in wardrobes for his house ranging from €2,400 to €2,600. He put a tender up on my website and he got them done for €1,400," said Dunne.

Dunne first heard about the idea for the website from Michael Coghlan, a customer at his Westpoint gym in Blanchardstown.

"Michael was a sales rep for a hydraulics company but whenever he went out on the road, companies were always asking him for products he wasn't selling, like photocopiers. He thought this website would be a great way for a company to say what they needed without repeating themselves over and over on the phone to suppliers."

Investing €50,000 of his own money in the site, Dunne said he was "very happy" with the website's first week in which it attracted 30,000 hits and had 296 tenders placed. "We're living in tough times; people need new ideas. If there's a downside to this, we haven't come across it yet," he said.