Online businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors of Bangladesh in 2013/14. Economists envision that this is going to be the next major economic sector of Bangladesh after clothing, ship building, agriculture and jute.
There are several reasons behind it. Bangladesh is a densely populated country with over 160 million people from which about 33 millions are internet users. The internet growth of Bangladesh is one of the fastest in the globe especially the mobile internet usage is rising in an extremely high level. Recently 3G and 3.5G network was introduced in Bangladesh which attracted more and more consumers to switch from mobile phones to smartphones.
Why people are on the internet? Usually, to get information and consume goods.Big foreign companies are after the so called ‘emerging markets’ because the competition is getting high in Europe and America. So they are investing in highly potential emerging markets like Bangladesh.
Over the past few years there are several big companies entered the Bangladeshi market. Here are Few –
Bikroy
Bikroy is a swidish based company with investors from Dubai and has become of the most popular websites of Bangladesh. It is a classified website for buying and selling almost everything. Their massive marketing campaigns in all the big newspapers, radio, TV, billboard etc. clearly says that there are big foreign investments behind the scene.
Lamudi
Lamudi is a premium property buying and selling online marketplace grounded by the largest internet incubator of the world Rocket Internet GmbH from Germany. They are working with big property developers and agents of the country. Lamudi is running in over 15 ‘emerging markets’ of the world including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia and Nigeria.
Carmudi
Carmudi is a premium vehicles marketplace also founded by Rocket Internet. Working in the same way as Lamudi. They are dealing with the top vehicle dealers of Bangladesh.
OLX
OLX is based in New York City and Buenos Aires and one of the most successful general classifieds website of the world. The site also works almost as same as Bikroy. Their service is available in 96 countries and in 45 different languages.
Cellbazaar
Cellbazaar was founded by Kamal Quadir a Bangladeshi American which was later acquired by Telenor (A Norwegian telecommunications operator) in 2010. It is also a classified website for buying and selling.
Other than these sites there are thousands of Bangladeshi freelancers working in hiring websites like Odesk and Elance. Many internet based companies especially from the US, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom are hiring Bangladeshi freelancer for work from home tasks like online research, blog writing, online marketing, programming etc.
In conclusion, it is clear that the strength of Bangladesh is its manpower. The growth in technology in the country will help in flourishing the economy in a greater level within the next few years.
