September 8, 2008
Selling Potatoes By Phone In Remote Bangladesh
CellBazaar, which offers a virtual marketplace for the 20 million mobile-phone subscribers of Bangladesh's GrameenPhone Ltd., might not sound like a big deal in much of the Wi-Fi-enabled, laptop-toting world. But to farmers and fishmongers in Bangladesh with almost no access to computer terminals -- and often without the electricity to power them -- the service is a much-needed portal to additional income in the densely populated agricultural nation. The WSJ reports.
"Although 75% of Bangladesh's population has no access to electricity and Internet penetration is only 0.03%, CellBazaar has more than one million users. A quarter of them use the service on a regular basis, with about 550 new items posted each day.
Almost all of that is by mobile phone, though CellBazaar also offers an online platform. But what Mr. Quadir, 36 years old, finds gratifying are the stories behind the numbers -- such as a post from a farmer in a remote area of Bangladesh offering to sell a bag of potatoes."
Image from Fresh Plaza
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