Re: Uberization

From: Loganaden Velvindron <logan_at_afrinic.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 11:17:08 +0400

On 1/3/16 3:12 AM, S Moonesamy wrote:
> Hi Logan,
> At 08:58 02-01-2016, Loganaden Velvindron wrote:
>> I was in a dinner a few days ago with a friend, and he also mentioned
>> this term. Honestly, I didn't know what it means. In my view,
>> Uberization cannot quite work in Mauritius because we are still stuck
>> with shops that do not accept payment by cards. We still have to carry
>> cash. The problem is how much cash ?
>
> It's basically a process where you cut out the intermediaries in the
> supply chain. It is not related to shops which do not accept payment
> by cards.

Thank you for clarifying it.

>
>> e.g, in Ebene, there are food shops which accept payment by cash only.
>> Same goes for the street merchants. Assume that they vary the price of
>> the food every week. If they don't publish it via a website, then, it's
>> hard for me to know how much cash I have to retrieve from the ATM. These
>> days, some argue that you should not walk around with a lot of money as
>> well.
>
> This is an interesting problem. I can think of at least one
> alternative. :-)
>
>> In order for a large number of people in Mauritius to benefit from
>> Uberization, we would need
>>
>> 1) Public wifi everywhere so that people can go online (We should not
>> forget that 60% of households are connected to the Internet). We need a
>> way to make it possible for the less fortunate to be able to get it.
>
> That's something which the ICT Advisory Council to work on if it
> believes that it is a problem.
>
>> 2) A cheap and easy way for any shop to push their prices in real time
>> on the web. I'm not sure if facebook is a good platform for this.
>
> You already know my opinion about Facebook island.
>
>> 3) Payment by cards becoming accessible for street merchants which is
>> much easier for fluctuating prices.
>
> Do you mean that hawkers should accept payment by credit card?
>
Yes, they should !

One example: A hawker varies the price of fruits based on availability.
If i have Rs 50, and my order cost Rs 60, I will have to walk to an ATM
to retrive Rs 100. Is it worth walking or taking a car back to the
nearest ATM for Rs 10 ?

Whereas if the hawkers supported payment by cards, it would make it much
less painful.
Received on Sun Jan 03 2016 - 07:04:25 PST