A Mobile Craig’s List

Last week a new service was launched in Bangladesh that connects people who are selling products with potential buyers through their mobile phones. The service CellBazaar was started with support from GrameenPhone, the country’s largest cell phone provider.

What the service does is allow people to access a database of goods via SMS from their mobile phone. Once a user registers their phone and their location by sending a message to an SMS short code, they can enter their product into the database, look around for something to purchase, or just check the going rate for a certain product in different towns.

CellBazaar creator Kamal Quadir says that the service is not just mobile classified ads but a social development service that cuts out the middlemen for buyers and sellers, which means more profits and savings for them. He envisions, for example, that the service will let farmers get a better price when they sell their potatoes. And if a farmer or another seller doesn’t have their own cell phone to send the SMS from, then they can look for a “Phone Lady” who will let them use her phone for a small fee.

Bangladesh has quite a few phone ladies, mostly because the micro bank the Grameen Foundation lends money for women to purchase the phones and has helped to develop the business model with its Village Phone project. On its website, CellBazaar even pitches its database as a way for phone ladies to improve their business, as it’s one more service they can provide. The CellBazaar website walks through a few more ways that the service can be used that bring to mind Craig’s List. It’s not just products that are sold, but services like tutoring, and anyone can participate as a buyer or a seller.

For a great interview with the creator of CellBazaar and a thorough explanation of how it works, check out this article. Rajputro also writes about CellBazaar on his blog (Via Textually).