E-Commerce in Bangladesh

Chapter One: E-Commerce & History of E-Commerce

What is E-Commerce?
Ecommerce refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems through Internet and other computer networks. The most popular medium in which e-Commerce is conducted is the internet. It combines a range of process such as: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Electronic mail (E-mail) World Wide Web (WWW) Internet Applications Network Applications

It does not include transactions over telephone, fax or any payments made online for transactions whose terms were negotiated offline or by physical means. Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following: Email Enterprise content management Instant messaging Newsgroups Online shopping and order tracking Online banking Online office suites Domestic and international payment systems Shopping cart software Teleconferencing Electronic tickets

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Early Development
Originally, electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK. Beginning in the 1990s, electronic commerce would include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the Worldwide Web, web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited by NSF until 1995. Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.

Timeline
The timeline for e-commerce progression is shown below:

1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping. 1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is first B2B online shopping. 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and used for online ordering.

1984: Gates head SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping and Mrs. Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper.

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1984: In April 1984, CompuServe launches the Electronic Mall in the USA and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service.

1985: Nissan UK sells cars and finance with credit checking to customers online from dealers' lots.

1987: Swreg begins to provide software and shareware authors means to sell their products online through an electronic Merchant account.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, Worldwide Web, using a NeXT computer.

1992: Terry Brownell launches first fully graphical, iconic navigated Bulletin board system online shopping using RoboBOARD/FX.

1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers online ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opens. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials also become commercially available, as do cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 SSL encryption that made transactions secure.

1995: Thursday 27 April 1995, the purchase of a book by Paul Stanfield, Product Manager for CompuServe UK, from W H Smiths shop within CompuServes UK Shopping Centre is the UKs first national online shopping service secure transaction. The shopping service at launch featured WH Smith, Tesco, Virgin/Our Price, Great Universal Stores/GUS, Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World (retailer) and Innovations.[5]

1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour, internetonly radio stations, Radio HK and Net Radio start broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.

1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.

1998: Alibaba Group is established in China. 1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997 for US $149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.

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2000: The dot-com bust. 2001: Alibaba.com achieved profitability in December 2001. 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail companies Wayfair and NetShops are founded with the concept of selling products through several targeted domains, rather than a central portal.

2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit. 2004: DHgate.com, China's first online b2b transaction platform is established, forcing other b2b sites to move away from the "yellow pages" model.

2005: Yuval Tal founds Payoneer- a secure online payment distribution solution 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million. 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million. Retail Convergence, operator of private sale website RueLaLa.com, acquired by GSI Commerce for $180 million, plus up to $170 million in earn-out payments based on performance through 2012.

2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead, the group buying websites plans to go ahead with an IPO in mid-2011.

2011: Online payment and recurring billing services provider Vindicia, developer of the CashBox SaaS billing solution, is named the 20th fastest growing company in Silicon Valley.

2011: US ecommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $197 billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2010. Quidsi.com, parent company of Diapers.com, acquired by Amazon.com for $500 million in cash plus $45 million in debt and other obligations. GSI Commerce, a company specializing in creating, developing and running online shopping sites for brick and mortar businesses, acquired by eBay for $2.4 billion.

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Chapter Two: E-Commerce in Bangladesh

E-Commerce for Bangladesh With the increasing diffusion of ICTs, more specifically the Internet, the global business community is rapidly moving towards Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Commerce. The buyers/ importers gain a clear advantage when the Internet gives them access to the global market, by which they can compare prices across regions, find out whether prices vary by order fragmentation, get awareness about substitute/ alternative products. Consequently, the sellers/ exporters make sure that they are well portrayed in the cyber world through websites and portals. Like buyers, sellers also benefit from increased and more efficient access to the global market through the Internet. Bangladesh is pursuing an economic policy of export-led growth. With the rising forces of globalization, it is becoming increasingly important that the private sector, particularly the export sectors are well prepared to meet the requirements and expectations of the importers and also stand out in the competition against exporters in other countries. In such a scenario, two issues are becoming particularly important for Bangladeshi export sectors one, whether businesses are automating their internal processes with the use of ICTs to become increasingly efficient and competitive in a global context, and two, whether businesses have effective presence and participation in the cyber world. International organizations such as UNCTAD (United Nations Center for Trade and Development) and WTO (World Trade Organization) have, over the last several years, put much emphasis on the importance of e-Commerce for developing countries. UNCTAD has special programs to facilitate developing countries to transition into e-Commerce. The WTO has also developed rules and guidelines for global e-Commerce transactions. Bangladesh has declared Data Processing and Software Export a Thrust Sector both in its Industrial and Export policies and has provided a unique package of incentives so that the private sector can play a major role in this economic sphere. Bangladesh is also encouraging private sector involvement by allowing tax deductions for investments made in making themselves Ecommerce ready.

Additionally, Bangladesh has instituted an IT Policy, drafted with a view to making Bangladesh |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 5

E-Commerce in Bangladesh an IT-driven nation by the year 2010. An IPR (Intellectual Property Right) Act has been introduced to encourage IT development by allowing innovators and inventors to protect their investments.

Finally, Bangladesh has taken the initial steps in providing a technical and physical backbone for IT. Bangladesh now has an optical fiber network which runs over 300 Rail Stations all over the country. These will be connected immediately with the submarine global optical fiber backbone and at least 300 Railway Station spots spread all over the country will come online, joining Bangladesh with the global system of high speed transmission and reception capacity. Overview of implementation stage of e-Commerce in Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Information and Communication and Planning Commission jointly implementing the e-commerce in Bangladesh There is e-Commerce committee headed by commerce secretary. Ministry of Information and Communication is working for enacting a law regarding Electronic Transaction act. Online order from foreign buyer has started. www.registrarofcompniesbangladesh.com here registration of joint stock company started as online. Online non-financial transaction has started by all bank from 31-7-2002. Intra-bank transaction started from 31-7-2003. Some bank already started credit card system in a limited way. About 2 months Bangladesh Bank give permission of Ecommerce in local currency through banks within the country. Some E-Commerce shop in Bangladesh In Bangladesh there are lots of E-Commerce shop site. Some of are given below in a list: 1. www.haatbazar.com 3. www.bdgift.com 5. www.number1shop.com 7. www.bdbazar.com 9. www.bengalcommerce.com |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| 2. www.sonarmarketplace.com 4. www.clickbd.com 6. www.cellbazaar.com 8. www.upoharbd.com 10. www.bdjobs.com Page 6

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Chapter Three: Three Successful E-Commerce Website in Bangladesh

About bdjobs
BdJobs.com Ltd.is the first and leading career management site in the country. Eight young business and IT professional backed by strong command over e-business and in-depth understanding of the needs of job seekers and employers in the country's context started this venture on July 2000. Our web-site aims to explore maximum benefits of the Internet. We believe our service will help the job seekers manage their career more efficiently. This site will also help employers solve many of the problems associated with traditional recruiting methods and allow them to save time and money. Right after its launching, the site has been able to attract the Internet users in the country. The site regularly updates Job Information (on average more than 1800 valid job news are placed at any point of time at the site), provides facility to the job seekers for posting resume and online application. The site has also been able to get good response from a large number of organizations in the country who use online job advertisement facility, online CV bank access and online application receiving and processing facility of www.bdjobs.com. Till now, more than 5500+ employers in the country have recruited more than 150,000 professionals at different levels for their organizations through Bdjobs.com service.

Vision
The vision of the company is to try bringing Internet technology in the mainstream business and economic life of the society.

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Bdjobs.com Website information

Bdjobs.com is ranked #7,696 in the world according to Alexa traffic rankings. Bdjobs.com has Google page rank #5. Bdjobs.com in business since, 30-Jan-2000. The estimated website net worth based on its advertising revenue is around $313,020. Bdjobs.com receives 142,931 page views per day and generates nearly $429 every day in advertising revenue. Bdjobs.com has recently shown a 28.78% Loss in the traffic rank. The average page load time is 4 seconds, which is faster than 8% of sites around the world. Bdjobs.com has website back links from #661 website. Bdjobs.com appears to be hosted in United States. Bdjobs.com hosted on networksolutions.com.

Domain Google Pagerank Global Rank Rank Change

Bdjobs.com 5 #7,696 1,720 (28.78%) Decrease $429 Daily $12,864 Monthly 142,931 Daily Views 661 No 07th Mar 2012 - 4 Weeks Ago.

Ad Revenue

Pageviews Backlinks Adult Contents Last Updated

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Website Title, Description, Keywords, Performance, Safety, Location, Age

Title Description Bdjobs.com Ltd. Offers vacancy announcement for job seekers and resumes for employees and career counseling. Includes categorized listing with search facility. Keywords Language Rating Performance Age Location Business and Economy Employment English bdjobs.com:3 out of 5 Page loads in 4 Seconds, faster than 8% of sites. 12 Years, 2 Months (30-Jan-2000) Fahim, Mashroor, BSRS Bhaban, 8th floor, 12 Kawran Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh Dhaka 1217, BANGLADESH. Phone: 880 2 9111521,

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Daily, Weekly, Monthly Website Page rank, Page view and Organic Searches
Time Range 3 Month 1 Month 7 Day 1 Day Traffic Rank 7696 8651 8894 7126 Reach Rank 10197 11129 11515 9247 157 147 145 180 Reach(Mil.) PageViews Rank 4351 5397 5692 4854 15.08 12.39 12 14.3 PageViews(Mil.) PageViews(Per User) 10.11 8.97 8.81 8.7

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Company Management
A.K.M Fahim Mashroor CEO

Company Board of Directors

A.K.M. Fahim Mashroor Majbah Uddin Ahmed Masumul Haque Shiblee Muhammad Hasan Mahmud Ahmad Islam Muqsit Faisal Chowdhury

About ClickBD.com
ClickBD is the First Online Marketplace in Bangladesh. Its a place where goods and services are bought and sold by a community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there is an abundance of new and used items spanning thousands of categories for sale at fair market prices. ClickBD enables trade on a local, national and international basis. ClickBD.com started its operations in April 14, 2005. ClickBD is Bangladesh's online marketplace where anyone can sell or buy almost anything. ClickBD has a strong and growing community user who trade in a wide range of item categories including Electronics, Cameras, Phones, Computers, CDs, Mobiles, Fashion Accessories, Music, and Travel. Through a world|MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 11

E-Commerce in Bangladesh class technology infrastructure ClickBD enables & simplifies e-commerce for Bangladesh's expending online community. People spend more time on ClickBD than any other Bangladeshi site, making it the most popular site of the country. ClickBD encouraged young generation to earn money from selling goods using the power of the Internet. ClickBD is proud to help many people established successful online businesses that make a living out of it. In 2011, ClickBD launched Online Stores alongside its classified service, providing an opportunity for users to visit an online shopping mall and do online shopping at the best price. ClickBD aspires to continuously shape the Bangladeshi Internet revolution by building the largest person-to-person trading community in the country. We will do so by offering the best consumer experience in an environment driven by high performance, constant innovation, teamwork and opportunity for wealth creation. Our mission is to provide an e-trading platform for Bangladesh where practically anyone can trade practically anything. ClickBD is creating a place where people can offer goods for sale and anyone in the world can buy at a fair price. It will be a market of people, where your next-door neighbor can compete with a large corporation and have an equal chance of success. It will be a place that constantly adapts and improves to meet the needs of buyers and sellers. Trust, honesty and efficiency will be rewarded. In the end, our market will be so large and open that you will be able to find almost anything you can imagine. And every other way to buy and sell things will seem inferior. People from all over Bangladesh buy and sell on ClickBD. Currently, over 90% of all listed items gets sold on ClickBD giving buyer and seller the convenience of online trading. People come to ClickBD to buy and sell items in an array of categories from antiques, art and collectables to practical items like used cars, mobiles, laptops, clothing, books, CDs, and electronics. Buyers have the option to purchase items in an auction-style format or items can be purchased at a set price through a feature called Fixed Price. ClickBD is the place to buy what you want, sell what you have, and make new friends while you are at it. Our online community of thousands of users that let you connect with people who share your interest. ClickBD Online Store is a comprehensive, full-featured ecommerce product that enables companies of all sizes to build and operate an ecommerce business. ClickBD Online Store manages every aspect of running an ecommerce business from design and merchandising, to |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 12

E-Commerce in Bangladesh catalog and inventory management, to checkout and payment processing with fraud protection. It uniquely combines a comprehensive toolset for fast design and implementation, with full flexibility and control of branding, design, merchandising and customer experience.

Mission
ClickBD aspires to continuously shape the Bangladeshi Internet revolution by building the largest person-to-person trading community in the country. They will do so by offering the best consumer experience in an environment driven by high performance, constant innovation, teamwork and opportunity for wealth creation. Their mission is to provide an e-trading platform for Bangladesh where practically anyone can trade practically anything.

Vision
ClickBD is creating a place where people can offer goods for sale and anyone in the world can buy at a fair price. It will be a market of people, where peoples next-door neighbor can compete with a large corporation and have an equal chance of success. It will be a place that constantly adapts and improves to meet the needs of buyers and sellers. Trust, honesty and efficiency will be rewarded. In the end, their market will be so large and open that people will be able to find almost anything they can imagine. And every other way to buy and sell things will seem inferior.

Online Marketplace
People from all over Bangladesh buy and sell on ClickBD. Currently, over 90% of all listed items gets sold on ClickBD giving buyer and seller the convenience of online trading. People come to ClickBD to buy and sell items in an array of categories from antiques, art, and collectibles to practical items like used cars, mobiles, laptops, clothing, books, CDs, and electronics. Buyers have the option to purchase items in an auction-style format or items can be purchased at a set price through a feature called Fixed Price. ClickBD is the place to buy what you want, sell what you have, and make new friends while you are at it. Their online community of thousands of users that let you connect with people who share your interest.

The Founder
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E-Commerce in Bangladesh The founder and the Chief Software Engineer of ClickBD, Humayoun Alamgir, is a graduate from Arizona State University (USA) who worked for many top-notch companies in the US, UK and Bangladesh. His continued passion for software engineering and desire for contributing in Bangladesh's internet revolution had led him to build ClickBD.com from scratch. According to his vision, this truly dynamic e-commerce solution will change the way we buy and sell in Bangladesh. He hopes, success of ClickBD will inspire more ICT entrepreneurs to come up with new and innovative ideas to shape up our country's future in IT.

Location
Their offices located is : 55/1 , kakrail, Ramna, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. Phone: (+88) 0174-220-5300

Rules for selling and buying on ClickBD.com

1. You are not permitted to link to, display, or advertise (through the use of email addresses, URLs, images, or any other contact information) goods or services for which you are not posting on ClickBD.com. 2. You may not include any content or images in your classified ad that are obscene, offensive, harmful to minors, an invasion of privacy, or otherwise inappropriate. 3. You may not offer any item for sale that is not in your possession, you do not have the right to sell, or that does not exist at the time of the classified ad. 4. You are not permitted to send unsolicited email or messages to ClickBD.com or any members of ClickBD.com. 5. You may not use or manipulate this service for any fraudulent activity or purpose. 6. You may not disrupt ClickBD.com operations or service. This includes the use of any automated routines used to gather or generate information via our web site, or any other repetitive action that may degrade the performance of our systems. 7. You are not allowed to post any Ad that suggests ways to 'Earn Money Online' 8. Circumventing ClickBD.com fees and payments is prohibited. 9. You must complete any ClickBD.com transaction upon which final terms have been agreed. Likewise, buyers should not make offers or accept an asking price on classifieds for which they do not intend to complete a transaction. |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 14

E-Commerce in Bangladesh 10. Your classified ad must be in English, however it may contain words in another language, if necessary, in order to describe the item or service for sale.

Clickbd.com Website Information

Clickbd.com is ranked #15,699 in the world according to Alexa traffic rankings. Clickbd.com has Google pagerank #3. Clickbd.com in business since, 26-Dec-2004. The estimated website net worth based on its advertising revenue is around $153,449. Clickbd.com receives 70,068 pageviews per day and generates nearly $210 every day in advertising revenue. The average page load time is 8 seconds. Clickbd.com has website backlinks from #62 website. Clickbd.com appears to be hosted in United States. Clickbd.com hosted on domaincontrol.com. Domain Google Pagerank Global Rank# Rank Change Ad Revenue Pageviews ViewsBacklinks Adult Contents Last Updated Clickbd.com 3 15,699 Newly Added $210 Daily, $6,306 Monthly 70,068 Daily 62 No 25th Feb 2012 - 1 Month Ago.

Website Title, Description, Keywords, Performance, Safety, Location, Age

Title Description ClickBD ClickBD.com is a world-class Internet trading infrastructure free of middlemen where people can sell or buy almost anything new or secondhand in e-commerce format. EBay of Bangladesh. Keywords Language Rating Performance Business and Economy Shopping [Free Organic Keyword Report] English clickbd.com:3 out of 5 Page loads in 8 SecondsAge7 Years, 3 Months (26-Dec-2004) Page 15

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E-Commerce in Bangladesh Safety Location Safe website[ Verified with Google Safe Browsing ] ClickBD, 55/1 Kakrail, Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. Phone: ( 88) 0191-347- 4660, Email: webteam[AT]clickbd.com.

Daily, Weekly, Monthly Website Pagerank, Pageview and Organic Searches

Time Range 3 Months 1 Months 7 Days 1 Days 11,752 12,501 17,061 16,827 95 100 5,158 7,905 12.7 9.2 13 9 13,352 19,554 82 5,532 11.7 14.1 Traffic Rank 15,699 Reach Rank 22,110 73 Reach(Mil.) PageViews Rank 7,517 8.8 PageViews(Mil.) PageViews(Per User) 12.1

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The ClickBD Team

Robert Dighero, Director Peter Oertlin, Director Dil Afrose, Chief Executive Officer Humayoun Alamgir, Chief Software Engineer and Managing Director Golam Mohiuddin, Software Engineer Ariful Azim Abdulla, System Analyst Nashrah Rubyath, Customer Service Representative Tanzillah Wahid, Customer Service Representative Rasel Ahmed, Graphic Artist Kamruzzaman Khan, Sales Officer

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E-Commerce in Bangladesh Imran Mahmud, Marketing Officer Iqram Ahmed, Receptionist

Click-Card.com
Click-Card, is a unique online payment solution designed for Bangladesh that offers you complete security while shopping on the internet. Not many people has credit cards in Bangladesh which makes shopping online impossible for most of us. Even people with credit cards do not feel safe to share their financial data over the internet. With Click-Card, you can shop online safely, without using your actual credit / debit card information. This not only keeps your information safe, but also protects your privacy when completing transactions online. Click-Card is Bangladesh's first online payment card. With no extra charges or yearly fees, you can finally enjoy the freedom of online shopping. You do not have to have a bank account or any type of bank cards to get a Click-Card of your own. Register today and get a Click-Card, it makes life easy with endless possibilities.

About cellbazaar
It is truly a cell bazaar at your service from Bangladesh. The service allows buyers and sellers to meet in a mobile marketplace. Sellers post items, buyers view them, and contact sellers. Nearly more than 20 million users can access this service to buy any agricultural product, such as rice, fish, chicken, as well as large scale purchases like apartment, land, car, and consumer goods such as TV, fridge, etc. People can also offer services such as tutoring, repair, video and so on. CellBazaar brings the buyer and seller to point of transaction. At the final stages, buyer speaks to |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 18

E-Commerce in Bangladesh seller, agrees on terms, and meets them in person to transfer cash and take delivery of the good. When mobile payment is integrated into the system, buyer can complete the entire transaction from the mobile. In highly populated South Asian countries, interestingly, mobile is reaching out to more people than any other ICT tools. Creating bazaar on mobiles and offering transaction services on cellular network could be a great leveler if the content, services and transactions are seamless and painless. Cell Bazaar in Bangladesh seems to have been succeeded in providing buyers and sellers market place on mobiles. CellBazaar provides a birds-eye view of the entire market for sellers and buyers. Those lacking capital for brick-and-mortar structures learn about CellBazaar through word-of-mouth networks and then set up shop on mobile phones. This allows them to bypass the middlemen, weakens the power of syndicates, and pushes the market towards efficient prices. By enabling micro-market makers, this service empowers small businesses. Technology. Allowing people almost everywhere to stay in touch with family, Friends, and customers, and fulfilling myriad other needs, the mobile has Become the essential technology. In countries like Bangladesh, the adoption curves have been astonishingly rapid, displaying classic hockey stick patterns. To take full advantage of this opportunity, we launched the mobilephone-based market called CellBazaar in Bangladesh.

Platforms of Cellbazaar

SMS SMS (Short Message Service) has been phenomenally popular since its introduction in Bangladesh. CellBazaar leverages the simple, widespread power of SMS to bring the market to your phone. By sending simple text messages to 3838, you can post items for sale, look for items to buy, and obtain current market prices of products or services.

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WAP WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is the next generation of mobile phone technology. 12% of all mobile sets in Bangladesh are already WAP-enabled, and this number is growing rapidly. WAP provides an even faster experience as you browse a simple graphic menu to access the entire marketplace.

WEB WEB version shows the entire market at a glance on computer screen. Anyone with internet access can browse the market, and post items for sale. Items posted by WEB, WAP or SMS are instantly visible to users of any platform. WEB platform also makes the local mobile-based market available to an international audience.

VOICE Any Grameenphone user can dial 3838 and listen to the latest items on the market in Bengali. After dialing 3838, users choose from 8 categories: Jobs, Mobile Phones, Agriculture, Motorcycle, Car, Electronics, Computers, and To-Let. Every few hours, users will hear new information through this service.

Marketing
Television Ad |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 20

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CellBazaar launched their second television campaign during Eid 2008. Featuring a middle class Dhaka family, tired of their old TV. Will they break into Bank of Joba, will they collect enough money to buy a new TV? CellBazaar service to the rescue: by selling the old TV to a buyer on CellBazaar, they now have enough money to buy a new TV. This advertisement is also the marketing debut of 3838 Voice service. Sticker

CellBazaar's grassroots marketing has created top-of-mind share all over Bangladesh, using the ubituitous car, taxi and microbus. Our stickers are now the most visible piece of marketing in the cities. DAILY STAR, in their recent cover story described our marketing strategy: "They seem to be everywhere without obtrusive ads, and that definitely must be a first for Bangladesh." Booklets

CellBazaar has launched educational booklets for four target audiences: villagers & farmers, old & retired, young professionals, and tech-savvy teenagers. There are detailed booklets for those who want step-by-step instructions, as well as short leaflets for customers who want to carry a "quick guide" in their pocket. Available at all Grameenphone centers across the country. |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 21

E-Commerce in Bangladesh Billboard

On the occasion of CellBazaar winning the 2008 GSMA award in the category of "Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development", Grameenphone launched several billboards in the capital city. Focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the billboard thanked the people of Bangladesh for using the CellBazaar service and making it popular, which resulted in this internet.

Partners
Grameenphone: Grameenphone is Bangladesh's leading telecommunications service provider with more than 30 million subscribers. Grameenphone Community Information Center (GPCIC): Grameenphone Community Information Center (GPCIC) is a shared premise; where the rural people can have access to wide range of state of art services such as Internet, voice communications, video conferencing and all other information services.

Katalyst: Katalyst aims at poverty reduction via private sector growth, mainly through small & medium enterprises (SME) development. Thakral: Thakral is a Joint Venture between the Thakral Group of Singapore (operating in 30 countries) and Esquire Group of Bangladesh. BracNet: BracNet provides enterprise organizations with a high-speed dedicated Internet access via a Cisco Powered backbone engineered for mission critical data. BRAC Bank Limited: BRAC Bank Limited, with institutional shareholdings by BRAC, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Shorecap International, has been the fastest growing Bank in 2004 and 2005. The Bank operates under a "double bottom line" agenda where profit

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E-Commerce in Bangladesh and social responsibility go hand in hand as it strives towards a poverty-free, enlightened Bangladesh. Prothom Alo: Prothom Alo is Bangladesh's largest circulation Bengali language newspaper and a key influence on cultural trends. CellBazaar provides Prothom Alo classifieds on the mobile phone. The Daily Star : The Daily Star is Bangladesh's largest circulation English language newspaper. CellBazaar provides Daily Star classifieds on the mobile phone.

Cellbazaar Website information

Cellbazaar.com is ranked #13,640 in the world according to Alexa traffic rankings. Cellbazaar.com has Google pagerank #5. The estimated website net worth based on its advertising revenue is around $176,613. Cellbazaar.com receives 80,645 pageviews per day and generates nearly $242 every day in advertising revenue. The average page load time is 4 seconds. Cellbazaar.com has website back links from #104 website. Cellbazaar.com appears to be hosted in Bangladesh. Cellbazaar.com hosted on grameenphone.com. Domain Google Pagerank Global Rank# Rank Change Ad Revenue Monthly Pageviews ViewsBacklinks Adult Contents Last Updated Cellbazaar.com 5 13,640 Newly Added $242 Daily, $7,258 80,645 Daily 104 No 29th May 2010 - 1 Year Ago.

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Website Title, Description, Keywords, Performance, Safety, Location, Age

Title Description CellBazaar : Market In Your Pocket CellBazaar, MIT Media Lab project, is the biggest mobile based online marketplace in Bangladesh. Buying, Selling, Classifieds, and market information via mobile phone to over 23 million Grameenphone subscribers. Works on SMS, WAP, Web and voice platforms. - cellbazaar.com Keywords Language Rating Performance Safety Location Business and Economy, Shopping Selling,Classifieds WAP. English cellbazaar.com:3 out of 5 Page loads in 4 Seconds Safe website Cellbazaar, Inc. Phone: 000000000, Email: info [AT]cellbazaar.com

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Daily, Weekly, Monthly Website Pagerank, Pageview and Organic Searches

Time Range 3 Months 1 Months 7 Days 1 Days 10,768 12,408 17,370 21,533 94 80 3,138 2,793 20.5 23 22 29 13,599 21,231 77 4,431 14.4 18.6 Traffic Rank 13,640 Reach Rank 21,384 75 Reach(Mil.) PageViews Rank 4,279 14.85 PageViews(Mil.) PageViews(Per User) 19.7

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Chapter Four: Benefits, Impact, Constraints & Challenges of E-Commerce in Bangladesh

The benefits of e-Commerce are many and many. Some of them include
24X7 operation: Round the clock operation is an expensive proposition in the brick and mortar world while it is natural in the click and conquer world Global reach: The net being inherently global, reaching global customers is relatively easy on the net compared to the world of bricks Cost of acquiring serving and retaining customers: It is relatively cheaper to acquire new customers over the net. Thanks to 24 X 7 operation and its goal reach. Through innovative tools of push technology to retain customers, loyalty with minimal investments. An extended enterprise is easy to build: In todays world every enterprise is a part of the connected economy; as such you need to extend your enterprise all the way to your suppliers and business partners like distributers, retailers and ultimately you end customers. Internet provides an effective (often less expensive) way to extend your enterprise beyond the narrow confines of your own organization. Tools like enterprize resource planning (ERP) ,supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM), can easily be deployed over the net permitting amazing efficiency in time needed to market, customer loyalty, on time delivery and eventually profitability. |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 26

E-Commerce in Bangladesh Dis-intermediation: Using the net one can directly approach the customers and suppliers, cutting down the number of level sand in the process, cutting down the costs. Improved customer service to your clients: It results in higher satisfaction and more sales Power to provide the best of both the worlds: It enhances traditional along with internet tools. The impact of e-Commerce E-commerce can transform the way products and services are created, sold and delivered to the customers. It can also change the way in which the company works with its partners. The followings are well established benefits of e-commerce: Improved productivity: Using e-commerce, the time required to create, transfer and process a business transaction between trading partners is significantly reduced. Furthermore human errors like duplication of records are largely eliminated with the reduction of data entry and re-entry in the process. This improvement in speed and accuracy plus the access to document and information will result in increase in productivity. Cost savings: The cost savings stem from efficient communication, quicker turnaround and closer access to market. Streamlined business process: Use of internet and with automation of business process can make business more efficient Better Customer service: Customer can enjoy the convenience of shopping at any hour and anywhere in the world. Opportunities for new business: Business over the internet have global customer reach. There are endless possibilities for business to exploit and expand their customer base.

Constraints to E-Commerce in Bangladesh

Out of 64 districts, Internet services are available only in 6 major district headquarters. BTTB is planning to gradually roll out an IP network up to the 64 district headquarters. In January 2002, the Internet facilities were extended to 12 districts. The project is running on very fast and today almost 40 plus districts are getting Internet facilities. Followings are the barriers of e-commerce in Bangladesh: Very minimum number of users of web sites; |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 27

E-Commerce in Bangladesh Poor telecommunication infrastructure with limited fixed-line access, unreliable connectivity and low bandwidth (9K); High price of computer and hardware: The per capita income of our people is less than US$520. But in order to buy a computer it is needed US$500 and for this reason, it is beyond the capacity for a villagers to buy it. Lack of technically efficient personnel; Lack of investment in hardware and software; The banking infrastructure in terms of electronic payments and inter-bank connectivity is poor. As such, the customers of 5770 branches of the local banks are unable to operate their account with the other branches of the same bank. Inter bank transaction is more cumbersome as the clearing-house of the central bank is not online. An inter-bank transaction may take even 2 weeks if the branches are different cities. Only branches of the private banks are interconnected with their respective head offices. They are also satisfactorily computerized. This represents only 25% of the entire banking sector. Small number of Credit Card users; Limitations of supportive legal system. Such as, exchange controls, protection of telecommunication monopolies, restrictive trade practice and prohibitions; Absence of cyber law; People's mindset and very slow and expensive Internet services; Enterprise managers' lack of initiative and leadership in taking advantage of ecommerce;

Challenges of E-commerce for Bangladesh

Network Infrastructure o Intra-bank and Inter-bank Connectivity Local and Global o Bank-Client Connectivity o Security of transaction Banking mechanism o Automation o Convertibility of the Bangladesh currency o Retention quota |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 28

E-Commerce in Bangladesh o International credit cards Capacity Building: Human, Technical and Regulatory o Quick Settlement, Online credit Information, Skilled e-Manpower, Regulatory Framework Investment Legal Infrastructure Currency Convertibility: Access to Global Finance E- Culture

Chapter Five: Recommendations & Conclusion

Recommendations
The assessment of the e-commerce environmental forces of Bangladesh leave us some room to recommend some steps and measures, that should be undertaken by the policy makers and business stake holders for the full fledged implementation and development of e-commerce in Bangladesh. The recommendations are: There should be an EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) Gateway, which will connect all finance and banking institutions, ATMs, POS and related websites. Such Gateway will speed up the transactions among banks, commercial institutions. This sort of infrastructure needs to be implemented on priority basis. A CCG (Credit Card Gateway) should be established. A credit card gateway is a server that makes online credit card transactions safe (Skinner, 2005). The software protocols in the CCG use the information provided to check for availability of funds and to make sure the credit card is not expired, lost or stolen. This takes only seconds. When the transaction is approved a receipt is generated for the customer, and the funds are transferred to the vendor's bank account through EFT. Unlicensed radio frequencies should be made available on demand and VSAT operating licenses should not limit the bandwidth. To improve banking mechanism, Bangladesh government should compel the banking sectors to automate their operation and going online by a specific period. The control of foreign exchange should be liberalized gradually, and easier issuance of International Credit Cards should be allowed, banks should take effective steps here. |MIS 305| EAST WEST UNIVERSITY| Page 29

E-Commerce in Bangladesh Business associations and organizations should be made aware of the benefits of ecommerce. Business organizations like FBCCI, DCCI, MCCI, and BGMEA can play a significant role in promoting e-commerce in Bangladesh. Political commitment to improve governance and institutional strength is essential for successful application of e-commerce. Last but not least, National ICT policy, 2002 and enactment of the ICT Act, 2005 is required to enhance the implementation of e-commerce.

Conclusion
A key reason why e-commerce, especially the business-to-business segment, is growing so quickly is its significant impact on costs associated with inventories, sales execution, procurement, intangibles like banking, and distribution costs. If these reductions become pervasive, e-commerce has the potential to be the application that ushers in the large productivity gains. Achieving these gains is therefore contingent on a number of factors, including access to e-commerce systems and the needed skills. However, what is unique about ecommerce over the Internet and the efficiency gains is that it promises the premium placed on openness. To reap the potential cost savings fully, firms must be willing to open up their internal systems to suppliers and customers. This raises policy issues concerning security and potential anti competitive effects as firms integrate their operations more closely.

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