Introducing Nokia Listings beta – Connecting buyers and sellers in emerging markets
Thu, 2010-08-05 16:41Written by Anand Prabhu-Desai, Nokia Listings team
For many people in emerging markets accessing information to secure a job or locate goods and services in their local area is a difficult task. Nokia Listings (now in beta) has been developed for the purpose of making this process of connecting buyers and sellers (or employers and job seekers) as simple as possible.
It is a well-known fact that the majority (60%+) of the hiring and consumer-to-consumer transactions, like apartment rentals, in emerging markets currently occur via word-of-mouth or through middlemen who charge a hefty commission for their services. Our goal is to bring the benefits of a digital marketplace to users of basic mobile phones (Series 40) without GPRS connections. The application therefore is fully functional on both SMS and GPRS.
Nokia Listings is designed for three major categories of listings:
1. Buy & Sell – Find or post items for sale
2. Jobs – Find or post a job
3. Local Services – Access or advertise services such as auto repairs, driver services, plumbers, etc.
Additionally, there's no explicit registration needed, listings are geo-coded so that the user is able to find the services nearest to his/her place, and users have the ability to call or SMS the other party through the application and forward listings via SMS to their friends.
During this beta trial, the service is only available to users in India. We are currently testing a limited content set and will be expanding across India in the near future. While the app will work on all Nokia devices that support Java, we’ve optimized the application for Series 40 phones.
Please check out the full list of features and supported devices and download the application. We look forward to your feedback in the forums!
Comments
Interesting idea. Not sure whether it works or not. But the problem is certainly there. It would be great to have this in South America
mm interesting idea, maybe on the web, not for an mobile app.
love the brilliant idea! The function should merge into the ovi maps.
I like the idea... I'm in rural Australia and appreciate services like this, search within xxx kms of me. Does the buy and sell section allow for "free" items because that is mostly what I use this sort of service for.
Also for local services, would you integrate that with POI's from Ovi Maps? The information could flow both ways. I.e. Services added in this app could show up in ovi maps searches and Ovi maps POI's could show up on this app.
Nokia 6720 classic FW 031.022.202.09
Like it but it is not for my mobile NOKIA 5800
@jorgelama - Why do you think this is not good for a mobile app? Putting this service on the (old) web might be nice for some, but think about those that don't have access to a PC or a mobile phone with Internet connection. But with this app and a basic mobile phone, they've got access.
John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs