Internet Marketing: an new frontier or a glorified nanny?

By Paul Agbo

(Originally published in 'Adentan News')

With the advent of internet and the World Wide Web (www), conventional market as we know it has had its fair share of innovation.

More people are transacting brisk business from internet websites and other online market place just as one might do in a local market place.

Tonaton.com, Tisu.com, OLX, Google Trader, were some of the online market patronized in Ghana.

Christabel Bediako, a staff of Adentan Municipal Assembly (AdMA) in Accra, Ghana relates her experience in an interview with the Adenta News, a local Municipal Newspaper.

“I advertised a product and in less than 24 hours, I had a call from a prospective buyer. We made arrangements and within that same 24 hours, we met, we transacted business, he had his phone and I had my money and that was it. That was how swift it was,” she said.
Picture: Bing.com/images/onlinemarket/

She was excited with the speed at which the transaction took place. “It was surprising. I didn’t think it will be that fast because if it had a word-of-mouth selling, it would have taken time. But with this [Tonaton], within some few hours, business was transacted.”

This is the enthusiasm with which the youth patronize internet markets. It is becoming a one stop place for anything one would wish to buy. Some websites, OLX and Tonaton.com for instance, categorized their advertisements to suit the immediate demand of their clients.

These websites have created a platform which brings buyers and sellers together at the same time provide free advertisement to the both buyers and seller. This has proven to be the competitive urge online markets have over the traditional market.

Aside all these convenience the internet market provides, does the internet provides opportunity to shady individuals? What about the delicate subject of privacy and confidentiality?

During a focused group discussion on the subjects, some young people raised the concern of confidentiality.

“I admitted I had issues of confidentiality the first time I wanted to advertise. One because it’s your contact [number] that will be publicized and two, you don’t know how far your privacy will be protected,” admitted Christabel skeptically.

It was also noted during the discussion that because there is no physical location where transaction takes place, it provide a guise for individual without scruples to take advantage of novice.

Consequently, some of the internet market service providers have issued warning on their websites for parties to refrain from meeting in private places.

The service providers could not be faulted so much with for what users do out there. It is teasingly convenient to say that the internet amplifies the predominant character of society in which it is used.

But perhaps, the online commerce service providers should be concern about the lack of public trust.