Chinese-funded e-commerce platform in Angola in full operation

Baobabay, a Chinese-funded e-commerce platform in Angola, has been in full operation with over 50 member shopping malls and 20,000 registered potential customers, Chief Executive Officer of Baobabay Feng Tao said here on Wednesday. E-commerce has become a mainstream retail format in the world economy and was quickly finding its way into Angola as it provided faster, cheaper and more effective goods and services to local customers, Feng Tao said.

The CEO attributed the quick development of Baobabay to the mushrooming number of internet and mobile users in the African country as the information technology and telecommunications sector figured high on the agenda of the Angolan government in the post-war reconstruction process which began in 2002 after decades of wars.

Official statistics indicate that over 3.5 million Angolans have access to internet while the mobile phone users amount to some 8 million as against the 23 million population of the country.

Feng Tao said that over 200,000 people had visited the website of Baobabay since it started trial operation on Aug. 1 this year.

The internet and mobile phone users, mostly young people aged 18 to 40, were the people with the most powerful purchasing power in the country, and Baobaby hoped over 1 million Angolans would visit its website by the end of this year, Feng Tao said.

Currently Baobabay has attracted internationally known brands of LG, Haier, Canon, Sharp to join hands, and promised to deliver goods in a door-to-door way in the capital city of Luanda within three days and to other provinces within seven days.

"We are based in Angola and we hope to expand our e-commerce to other African countries from next year," Feng Tao said. Enditem