Mobile cos should not be allowed in e-commerce business

Mobile phone companies in e-commerce business will put the local e-commerce business at severe risk, said speakers at a seminar in Dhaka on Saturday.
The mobile companies are allowing their potential customers to visit their sites for free whereas other e-commerce users have to pay to get access to such web sites, the speakers said at the seminar titled ‘Proper Guideline for Local E-Commerce Business — Net Neutrality and Healthy Competition’ organised by the Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services at its Karwan Bazar auditorium.
The BASIS repercussion came one week after the leading mobile phone company Grameenphone launched an e-commerce site, GP Shop, to sell latest smartphones, wearable gadgets and internet modems.
The key component of e-commerce business is the internet and the mobile phone companies can control that, said Rokomari.com chief executive Mahmudual Hasan Shohag.
‘So there is a chance that they can use their ability to create a difficult situation for their competitor e-commerce businesses,’ he said.
Former BASIS president Fahim Mashroor said that in order to create a level-playing field in the e-commerce business there needed to be net neutrality.
‘They can control the internet and now they are starting e-commerce business. So the entire process will go to their control,’ he said.
Lawyer ABM Hamidul Misbah termed the e-commerce service provided by the mobile phone companies illegal.
BASIS president Mostafa Jabbar said the mobile phone companies had become monsters.
‘The way a big fish swallows small ones the mobile phone company’s e-commerce ventures will also have the same effect on local small e-commerce businesses,’ he said.
Jabbar also said that the government should formulate e-commerce guidelines to protect the interest of the small e-commerce businesses.
The speakers also said that in the neighbouring countries the mobile phone companies were not allowed to do such e-commerce business.
They suggested that if the foreign-owned mobile operators wanted to come to the e-commerce business, they should have local partners with 50-per cent stakes.
A proposal in this regard will be sent to government offices and ministries concerned, said the BASIS leaders.
According to BASIS, currently the yearly revenue from e-commerce sector is Tk 350 crore and about 5,000 small entrepreneurs are engaged with the business.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net