Saturday, January 9, 2016, Poush 26, 1422 BS, Rabiul Awal 27, 1437 Hijri


Techtorial
Market goes on finger tips
Farzana Sultan Lopa
Published :Saturday, 9 January, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 14

The global population's dependence on online classified platforms has increased million fold in the last decade. A humungous potential for transactions through online classified platforms exist worldwide right now, and Bangladesh is no different.
A study conducted for OLX by global market research firm MetrixLab in 2013 among Internet users aged between 18 and 65 years in six divisions in Bangladesh revealed that internet users in Bangladesh hold a staggering BDT 147 billion ($1.9 billion)worth of used commodities at home.
According to statistics provided by leading online classified website in the country Ekhanei.com, compared to the period of August, September, and October of 2014, the number of ad uploads in the same time frame in 2015 has increased substantially. Uploads of home and living products has risen by a mind boggling 329 per cent, agriculture and food products by 121 per cent , mobile, computer and electronic products by 76 per cent, motorcycles and other vehicles by 42 per cent, among others. The highest number of ads have been contributed by customers uploading mobile, computer and electronic products, taking up 59 per cent of all uploads. Although Dhaka is far ahead of all the other regions in terms of number of uploads taking up 54per cent , other regions are steadily catching up as well, with Rajshahi at 13per cent , Chittagong at 9per cent , Khulna at 8per cent , Sylhet at 6per cent , Rangpur at 5per cent , and Barisal at 4per cent . The surging popularity of online classified platforms is highly evident from the figures.
The advancement of online classified platforms has brought with it a myriad of benefits. The enormous number of buying and selling of unused items conducted using them help to to flow money in the economy. They reduce wastage of unnecessary products by current users by giving them an opportunity to sell products they no longer need on online classified platforms. Products are available at a lower cost on classified platforms, which enable users to reduce dependency on loans and to save money.
Like developed counterparts, Bangladesh has seen a steady rise in the popularity of online classified platforms for buying and selling of a diverse range of commodities. The Ekhanei.com mobile app, for instance, has almost half a million downloads on Google's Android Play store. The website is visited more than 200,000 times every day, and currently has around 300,000 active ads.
The popular platform also has taken various innovating undertakings to spread further awareness on classified websites in Bangladesh, like partnering up with leading telecommunication companies and other industry leaders as well as conducting campaigns on special occasions to reach out to new customers.
Bangladesh is stepping up its game to enter the digital age. The rising popularity of online classified platforms is one of the many testimonies to it. The increasing use of smartphones and computers coupled with the internet reaching new corners of the country every other day would aid the country to realise its true digital potential in the not-so-distant future.
?A social development worker-turned journalist, Farzana Sultana Lopa is Sub Editor of an English newspaper











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