Ghoorni

e-Commerce is a popular trend among the university students of Bangladesh. But the existing online marketplaces are accessible to everyone, which means malicious people can also use the services. Lack of security is a discouraging factor for many internet users, which is eventually preventing the growth of e-Commerce in Bangladesh. Cyber harassment through mobile phones is another alarming issue that is discouraging many internet users, especially women to participate in e-Commerce. We are building Ghoorni, the first campus-based online marketplace of Bangladesh, that is only accessible to university students. Every user needs to verify their identity using their university ID cards. On this platform, students can easily and securely buy and sell their used/new items at their university premises. Our Private Messaging System will replace the idea of sharing phone numbers in the internet. Thus, Ghoorni can encourage more of our young people to participate in buying and selling online.

E-commerce is an infantile industry in Bangladesh. There are 91.421 million internet users in Bangladesh, but only 23% of them shop online. It is due to the lack of security, prevalence of online fraud and the lack of a robust privacy policy. In 2015, 7 kidnappers were arrested by DB, who used a popular online marketplace as a bait to kidnap a youth who wanted to sell a mobile phone online. The lack of privacy is another major problem. The existing classified ad portals are not women-friendly as they are accessible to everyone with an internet connection. Women are at higher risk of cyber harassment through mobile devices. Hence, many female internet users get discouraged to participate in buying and selling online. More than 17,000 complaints were submitted to the ICT Division's Cyber Help Desk in the two years that it was open. Among those, 70% of the complaints came from women. Finally, online fraud is another pressing issue that is preventing the growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh.

We have narrowed down our focus to university students since we can verify the identity of each student using their university ID cards. There are more than 3.4 million university students in Bangladesh studying at 137 universities, according to a 2016 report published by University Grant Commission. We believe that there should be a classified ad portal only accessible to the university students, where they can buy and sell used or new products on campus. To support our claim, we have conducted a survey among 400 university students of Bangladesh. 88.75% of the respondents said that they have used online marketplaces at least once in their lifetime. Yet, 90.99% of the respondents have one or more complaints or concerns regarding the existing online marketplaces in Bangladesh. The concerns include lack of security, lack of privacy, uncomfortable/unsafe etc. We asked them “If there was a platform that would let a university student buy from or sell to another university student, would you use it?” 81.75% of all respondents said “Yes.” To improve the presence of university students in digital marketplaces, we are building Ghoorni, an campus-based online marketplace only for the university students of Bangladesh.

Ghoorni, an online marketplace only for the university students of Bangladesh where they can buy and sell among themselves on campus. We aim to increase young people’s participation in online marketplaces and reduce unwanted incidents like cyber-harassment, scamming and other destructive activities that can be caused by digital marketplaces.

Features

• USER VERIFICATION SYSTEM

To list an item on Ghoorni, a user needs to verify their identity using their university ID card. This makes our marketplace more secure as we always have the user’s information. We encourage buyers and sellers to check for each other’s ID cards when they meet in person on campus. In case of fraud or other malicious activities we can help the law and enforcement authority with the suspect’s information.

• PRIVATE MESSAGING SYSTEM

On Ghoorni, a user can hide their phone numbers and choose to use the chat/private messaging system instead. This will benefit many, especially the women and reduce the risk of phone-harassment.

• REPORTING OF HARMFUL/FAKE LISTINGS

We let our users report a listing directly to us so we can immediately take it off from our platform. Our moderation policies will be strict.

• SECURE PAYMENT PROCESSING

In the future, we will use a secure payment processing system to ensure that the buyer and the seller’s money is safe.

Social Impacts

• Provide Higher Security

Ghoorni aims to provide a platform to the university students of Bangladesh where they can buy and sell online without risking their privacy and security.

• Ensure Gender Equality

Our proposed online marketplace is more women-friendly. We take the matter of cyber-harassment into a serious consideration.

• Empower University Students

Each year, the number of graduates exceeds the number of jobs created. This is why we need more entrepreneurs. Ghoorni aims to create a platform for the university students where they can start selling and creating their own business.

User’s Identity Verification:

Ghoorni only allows users who are students. It will ask each user to verify their identity by submitting an image of student ID card, In case of any malicious activities, Ghoorni can provide information of the suspect to the right authority.

Live Chatting System/Private Messaging System:

Instead of phone numbers as the only method of communicating between buyers and sellers, Ghoorni will develop a private messaging system. Users, especially women will be benefited from this feature.

Reporting of Harmful/Fraudulent Listings:

The moderation team of Ghoorni will follow a strict policy. In case of any report that has been submitted to the team, we will take immediate action.

Secure Payment Gateway:

At a later stage, we will offer a secure payment gateway. This will help customers and sellers protect themselves from fraudulent activities like counterfeit notes.

Technological Aspects

• The marketplace is being built with PHP
• We're going to build the product using Python (Django Framework) in the future
• We're going to initiate live chatting system
• In order to make it more secure for our users, we are going to develop an AI-backed fraud and error detection tool
• Artificial Intelligence will be used to recommend related products based on the user’s page visit and messaging history and other relevant factors.
• We’re going to use Google’s vision API for censorship of images (to remove ads with explicit images)

The university students often need to spend less, save more and earn some extra cash whenever possible. This is a reason that online marketplaces are so popular among them. We believe that a campus-based online marketplace will heavily benefit the university students of Bangladesh. To support our claim, we have conducted a survey among 400 university students. As we’ve seen in the survey, 86.25% of all respondents said that they have previously bought or sold used items. 88.75% of them said that they have used online marketplaces at least once in their lifetime. Yet, 90.99% of the respondents have one or more complaints or concerns regarding the existing online marketplaces in Bangladesh. The concerns include lack of security, lack of privacy, uncomfortable/unsafe etc. We asked them “If there was a platform that would let a university student buy from or sell to other university students, would you use it?” 81.75% of all respondents regardless of their gender said “Yes.”

Our platform is still in the development phase. Therefore, the current number of people Ghoorni is serving is zero. However, the number of Serviceable Obtainable Market is expected to be about 6,000 in one year. In five years, the number is expected to be approximately 94,000.

Goals for the next year:

• To initiate B2C part of our business model. Students can also be business sellers. Thus we are going to help students become e-commerce entrepreneurs.
• We are going to team up with a delivery company to initiate delivery services that can be purchased by the students to deliver items at a distant campus.
• We are going to initiate a secure payment method through which, students can make payment online.

Goals for the next five years:

• We are going to have mobiles apps both on iOS and Android platforms.
• We are going to have our own delivery team.
• We are planning to operate outside Bangladesh.

E-commerce is still an infantile sector in Bangladesh. A relatively low internet penetration rate, inadequate delivery mechanisms, lack of trust in online payment are some key reasons why it is still lagging behind. We need to spend a substantial amount of money in marketing our product to survive in the market for the next few years, until the market become more prepared for e-commerce. There are giants like bikroy, clickbd and so on which are currently making the market ready for Ghoorni.

We are going to focus on the university students of Bangladesh. After our brand becomes well-known to the market, we will go for a broader market to ensure profitability.

There are 5 people in the team.

• Taeef Najib - Founder and CEO
• Sabik Tawsif Anjum - Lead Software Developer
• Sazzad Kabir - Web Developer
• Md. Jahidul Islam - Intern
• Romance Samid Richie - Intern

I am doing my MBA in the department of Marketing at the University of Dhaka. Being a student myself, I understand the needs that university students have. I also work with a team of volunteers who are doing their bachelors in some reputed universities of Bangladesh.

We have secured a pre-seed grant from IDEA Project (Startup Bangladesh), an initiative of the ICT Division of Bangladesh. Currently, we are being mentored and supported by Startup Bangladesh.

Ghoorni has two key operations:

• Student to Student (C2C) (Working on this)
• Business to Student (B2C) (Will be launched in the future)

1. C2C - On Ghoorni, a student can list his item, search for the items listed by other students and contact the students through a private messaging system. Once they meet on campus, they can complete a successful selling/purchasing. Student listings are free. When a student from one university wants to buy from or sell to a student from another university, we will help them ease the process through our delivery partners.
2. B2C - Like every other B2C marketplaces, Ghoorni will help business sellers list their products that the students can buy. We will get the products delivered to their campus through our delivery partners. We ill process the payment through a payment processing partner and earn a commission on each sale.

Revenue Model:

Commission on B2C sales

Once, Ghoorni is built, there is no substantial cost of running it other than a maintenance fee and a relatively small operational cost. The revenue coming from the B2C model will pay for our marketing and operational cost. If we see fit, we are going to separate delivery and payment processing services from Ghoorni and launch separate companies. The massive data of the students that will have will hugely benefit us in a long term.

If my submission is selected, I will be benefited in 3 ways:

• Technical Support: Tiger IT is one of the leading IT companies of Bangladesh. If I am selected, I can hugely benefited by getting technical mentorship, services and additional support from Tiger IT.
• Financial Support: An investment funding of USD 2 million will help survive in the market for a substantial number of years and reach profitability.
• Reputation: The Tiger Challenge is a prestigious competition. If I can win as a Bangladesh-based participant, it will definitely give my company a PR boost and good reputation.

I am interested to partner with A2i for strategic and financial support. I would also like to partner with all the leading universities of Bangladesh to become an official partner serving the university students.