Comments on: eBay and the Developing World

By: Lotan

Lotan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:48:36 +0000

Maybe the best way to go about it is to start by having localized shops for the locals in those countries to trade among themselves. Find people with who can earn the right to run those shop by demostrating their ability to do that with the needed capital and the local landscape knowledge (politacal, geography, financial systems and the like).

Ebay should build platforms that can help them do that and then if a local or an international is interested in an item outside their local shop they then can follow those trust based layed down procedures.

By: Martin Muckle

Martin Muckle — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:19:06 +0000

I forgot to tick notify me…

By: Martin Muckle

Martin Muckle — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:37:16 +0000

I have read all the points above and think that the shipping issue can be dealt with quite easily, as can the connectivity. It is the payment issue that will hold things back.

I am trying to set up an online auction site for Kenya. There are already Worldwide shippers that can be used, the internet speed, cost, and availibilty will improve this year when the fibre-optics land in Mombasa (although nothing happens quickly).

Payment is the big problem. The vast majority of Kenyans are unbanked. Even if a bank account is available the payment options are limited. Sending money is not easy even as most banks only provide ‘point of sale’ debit cards. It is difficult, but possible, to SEND money via online payment systems, it is impossible to receive. The only option for digitised payment here in Kenya is Safaricom Mpesa (and other more recently introduced systems by rival networks), but users are unwilling to send money to a stranger for goods they have not seen. For fee payments I have established Mpesa payments to a ‘corporate’ version called Pay Bill. It is an offline payment method that requires admin to manually edit accounts. It is still Mpesa but recognisably ‘authentic’ by merit of the lack of dialling code. There is talk of Safaricom allowing payments from the Kenyan diaspora via mobile phone, which would be useful. I am aware of some work being done to integrate Mpesa with OS Commerce to accept payments live. It is not straight-forward.

Ebay could do a lot of good for Africa, beginning by allowing send/receive Paypal accounts. They will not do so until not only are there profits to be had, but the profits are big enough to make it worth there while. I’m afraid I am a little cynical about them making the effort and continue to believe that an independent, African solution is the best bet. I am not sure whether my url will display so I am ending with a plug

Kenya Online Auction

By: nico

nico — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:49:03 +0000

I have been ebay trading for 6 months selling instruments , masks, art etc. The main stumbling block would be a method of payment as Paypal does not affiliate to any West african banks as far as i know. If someone comes up with a workable solution to allow Artisans to accept payment here in an african bank account , the potential for international trade on ebay is collosal. I am also involved in a rural internet project and would love to hear from anyone who can offer any information on a solution!

By: sancho

sancho — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 19:45:42 +0000

I used to work for ebay as an engineer. i know a few kenyans that worked there, including the guy that gave the name and built kijiji.com.
The ebay platform has all this functions built in their system for all countries in the world i.e currency conversion, payment methods, shipping etc. All that has to happen, is for them to identify a working model and boom they’ll turn on the feature..
A good example is India’s alibaba, they had a good model working, high volume, ebay liked it, bought it, integrated them quite easily.

eBay not being a technology co like google oy yahoo but an MBA haven, will not take the effort to build africa into it’s model till they’re convinced business will be good, rather worth the hassle..

i’d suggest putting your efforts in building a home grown functionality that make sense for Africa, locally and abroad.. if you can have a farmer sell their stock by the click of their cell phone , whoopy you got som goin on..

By: Katharine

Katharine — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:05:11 +0000

I am a recent user of eBay and whilst I have got the hang of it now it wasn’t as easy to set up, from a sellers POV as I would have hoped. I’m an Engineering grad with IT knowledge so that wasn’t my stumbling block! I think its very easy to sell things on eBay but I think you have to have a reasonable appreciation of running a business to actually make money from it. Its very easy to forget to account for the various PayPal and EBay fees when selling and end up with very little margin!! Thankfully being an accountant I managed to work outa strategy for selling items that appears to work. However, I think even with my limited bandwidth of 256kbps in the UK I struggle with uploading photographs quickly. I would suggest that to make eBay work in Africa you’d have to make it quicker and easier to upload items for sale or find better ways of saving WIP so that people don’t lose their sales work part way through due to powercuts. I also believe like a number of the other posters that the shipping issue and security of financial payments are not there in many of the West African countries (don’t know about rest of Africa) to enable this to fly there yet. It is a massive shame as they desperately need it. Lets hope one of us finds the solution and gets it to work asap.

By: HASH

HASH — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:02:06 +0000

Good points Conrad. PayPal really needs to think international if they hope to become a big player.

Trust is absolutely huge for eBay, even here in the US. They were able to build trust in using their feedback system initially, but still have issues with people taking advantage of the system. That’s bound to happen in an open market where you’re just providing the platform, not the goods.

Overall, eBay needs to localize their strategies depending on the market. Some things work great in the US, but not in Korea. Likewise, the answer for Africa might be a great deal different than anything they’ve done in the past.

By: Conrad Strydom

Conrad Strydom — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:33:39 +0000

In South Africa we have quite a few online auction services,none hugely successful, here is what eBay needs to do to work here.

1) Make it easier to send and recieve money, we cant even use PayPal properly!

2) Become a household name over and above established services.

3) Establish trust in the collective unconsious, most people here are still scared to trade online.

4) Provide escrow services.

5) Maybe look at having kiosk facilities for the unconnected (still a big issue)

6) As Hash has mentioned, go mobile.

By: Caesar, P

Caesar, P — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 21:35:22 +0000

I think it is a well thought of suggestions from all contributors here especially from the initiator of the Blog. Africa is ready for E-bay trading platform and the sooner they use the power they have to expand into African countries the better it would be for them.

Google is coming on fast with their auction and I am sure they would be interested in the huge potential trading partnership of Africa. I am a keen E-bay user and would give up my time and expertise to serve Africa if E-bay want to leverage the opportunities there is in Africa.

The logistics of delivery within the African countries can be resolved with a few financial investments from interested business owners of African origin who are prepared to invest in E-bay because of it’s successes in USA and Europe.

Should E-bay require further information or interested in doing more research into “removing obstacles of E-bay trading in Africa” to contact me for more information on info@healthandwealthevents.com

By: HASH

HASH — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:15:50 +0000

Actually Oluniyi, I talked to one of the VP’s of PayPal at the conference as well. I mentioned that there are some great opportunities in Africa due to the fact that computers are expensive, but that most people have mobile phones. It seems that PayPal Mobile would be a perfect application for Africa.

What I’ve found is that eBay is very comfortable in the US, and the developed world, but has a hard time getting their minds around what is useful, effective, and profitable in the developing world. So, while I think it would be great for them to support use in more African countries, I have my doubts as to when that will be implemented.