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In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

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Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#11

Post by chii »

roenxi wrote: post #9
amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

The word 'regulation' implies some sort of rather severe punishment if you disregard it. Technically speaking I don't think there is a law (or regulation, either) on the books on my country so minor that I couldn't theoretically get arrested or have all my assets taken away from me if I absolutely, publicly, and persistently refuse to follow it. Even practically speaking, I'm not sure how far disobediance can be push…

> If the best deal isn't on Facebook people will go elsewhere.

But do they? Or do they just find the best deal on facebook, and then select that deal? In which case, you end up with defacto regulation by facebook because if they choose to remove your deal, you are effectively being regulated by hidden rules you have no control over.

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#12

Post by djohnston »

amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

i dont see how fb is a gatekeeper here. they have a product that is better than all the other freemarket alternatives for these people... no gatekeeping, no regulations forcing people to use fb

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#13

Post by roenxi »

chii wrote: post #11
roenxi wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word 'regulation' implies some sort of rather severe punishment if you disregard it. Technically speaking I don't think there is a law (or regulation, either) on the books on my country so minor that I couldn't theoretically get arrested or have all my assets taken away from me if I absolutely, publicly, and persistently refuse to follow it. Even practically speaking, I'm not sure how far disobediance can be push…

> If the best deal isn't on Facebook people will go elsewhere. But do they? Or do they just find the best deal on facebook, and then select that deal? In which case, you end up with defacto regulation by facebook because if they choose to remove your deal, you are effectively being regulated by hidden rules you have no control over.

> But do they?

Wikipedia tells me the per-capita GDP of Bangladesh is ~$2,173.

Yes, they do. They aren't sitting around thinking "welp, I've got so much money I'll just give up on shopping around". That attitude is a luxury for people with 5 figure incomes.

Maybe wealthy Bangladeshians don't bother. My heart bleeds for them and the bad deal they just accepted.

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#14

Post by luckylion »

sradman wrote: post #10
luckylion wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because Facebook obviously does not care. They remove the "buy" or "sell" posts due to laws, not because they themselves have issues with wildlife trafficking. If FB did care, they'd not have a problem shutting it down until you have to go into really obscure code to pass by their systems, at which point it gets useless, because that code isn't known by the other side.

> That's because Facebook obviously does not care. I seem to lack the ability to see what you find obvious. Perhaps we differ in what counts as supporting evidence or maybe our starting assumptions are drastically different.

Do you believe that Facebook is capable of adding a similar filter to match "to change hands"? If they were capable, what could the explanation be for why they don't?

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#15

Post by monadic2 »

amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

Unless something drastically changes with trade agreements we’re likely well beyond being able to regulate these multinationals in any broadly useful way.

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#16

Post by shp0ngle »

amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

That's actually the exact opposite of what's happening.

Facebook enables people with little knowledge of e-commerce to just open a shop with a few clicks. All the selling happens in messages.

What's your proposed alternative? Some government-sponsored app that has the same features as Facebook? Cool. Try that and let me know how it goes in Bangladesh.

If it wasn't Facebook, it would be some other large centralized system.

Maybe it would be India-based, or China-based, though.

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#17

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

luckylion wrote: post #14
sradman wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's because Facebook obviously does not care. I seem to lack the ability to see what you find obvious. Perhaps we differ in what counts as supporting evidence or maybe our starting assumptions are drastically different.

Do you believe that Facebook is capable of adding a similar filter to match "to change hands"? If they were capable, what could the explanation be for why they don't?

Because there are many, many langauges and idioms in the world, and AI isn't good enough to do this accurately at the moment.

Given that Bangladesh is pretty poor and small, the likelihood is that if they were to pour resources into it, eventually the business would pull out of the country, as it wouldn't be profitable.

Note that if they block to change hands, then people will start using another idiom, so a mere filter isn't going to accomplish much here.

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#18

Post by monadic2 »

shp0ngle wrote: post #16
amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

That's actually the exact opposite of what's happening. Facebook enables people with little knowledge of e-commerce to just open a shop with a few clicks. All the selling happens in messages. What's your proposed alternative? Some government-sponsored app that has the same features as Facebook? Cool. Try that and let me know how it goes in Bangladesh. If it wasn't Facebook, it would be some other large centralized sy…

Huh apparently all I need to do to justify literally any business model a) have a small mountain of cash and b) make it convenient. People will just give up on trying to imagine a way to do things better. Why bother when I already do things as well as anyone can imagine?

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#19

Post by oefrha »

To be clear I know nothing about Bangladesh, but obvious contradictions cast doubt on this piece of reporting.

An obvious one: subtitle says

In Bangladesh, there is no Amazon. There is no eBay. If you want to buy a dress or a crested finch from the comfort of your home, you have to use Facebook.

Then somewhere in the article:

The phenomenon has grown so much over the years that the number of stores on Facebook now eclipse the number of sellers on local e-commerce websites like Evaly, Ajkerdeal, or the Alibaba-acquired Daraz.

It links to this Daraz site, so I checked, and sure enough, there's a women's dresses category: https://www.daraz.com.bd/womens-dresses/ Of course there's no crested finch category, but it's not like you can buy live birds on Amazon or Ebay.

So, there's no Amazon or Ebay, but there are smaller online marketplaces (yes, at least the Daraz site is an online marketplace, it says "open your online store now" on its home page) selling things sold on Amazon and Ebay. How is this qualitatively different, and why does the author try to paint a picture where Facebook login is required (for things that aren't live birds)?

Then there are poorly explained claims like

all an aspiring entrepreneur needs is an internet connection and around $350 to cover startup costs

Why does starting a facebook page/group and accepting cash on delivery cost $350 upfront? Registration/license? (No, "most sellers are not licensed".)

Re: In Bangladesh, the majority of e-commerce now happens on Facebook

#20

Post by hankchinaski »

amelius wrote: post #3

We must put an end to gatekeeping behavior. The free market has its flaws but having your market (or your entire economy!) regulated by a large corporation really is the worst of both worlds.

there is no gatekeeping, facebook is just solving a distribution problem for many ecommerce owners and as a store owner i have to say it’s the most cost effective ways to reach customers
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