August 31st, 2005

Helen Wang ‘05 makes progress with her DVF project e-Mobilizer, with concentrations on defining eMobilizer’s market, developing a working prototype, and further exploring partnerships.

From the e-Mobilizer Email Update 2005-08-31:

This is our email update on e-Mobilizer’s activities. We have made a lot of progress on a variety of fronts, including Helen’s completion of the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) conference/training, defining an initial target vertical and segmenting the market, designing a working prototype, and exploring various partnerships.

Global Social Benefit Incubator
Helen was selected to participate in a two-week Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University. The program is dedicated to bringing practices to social benefit entrepreneurs who apply technology to address urgent human needs throughout the world.

As result of this program, we decided to start with a single vertical market, focused on women’s lifestyle. Since a lot of jewelry and handicrafts are made by women micro-entrepreneurs, this can give them access to larger markets to grow their businesses. We further segmented the market and developed strategies to reach each market.

Sharpened Marketing Strategies
Since our mission is to help micro-entrepreneurs access an online market, we will focus on serving them while drawing buyers. These seller-side activities include direct sales to physical marketplaces, incentive-based viral marketing strategies, and partner co-marketing through mobile carriers, handset vendors, and possibly banks.

On the buyer side, we will draw traffic to our site by leveraging blogs and opinion leaders to influence buyers. We will also develop strategic partnerships with women’s magazines and portals to drive inbound traffic. In addition to the product listings, we will also add service listings, which are particularly applicable to both mobile shopping and to women’s interests.

We believe that by initially focusing on a vertical market coupled to dynamic content with some merchandizing, we not only set ourselves apart from the competition, we also drill down into the market and can quickly demonstrate success.

Developing a Working Prototype
We are developing a working prototype in both English and Chinese to test the market and prove the concept. Basic functionality will include seller postings in various categories from mobile phones and website, buyer browse and search, featured content with picture ads, and SMS chatting to connect buyers and sellers, etc.

We intend to have some functionality available by the end of September, at which time Steve will go to China to test the system and get initial feedback. Helen will also travel to China in late September and October to get additional feedback from potential customers and partners.

Prototype development will continue on an incremental basis, though seed capital will really be needed to built-out the system for actual on-going use by real customers.

Signs of Validation
We are very excited to see signs of market validation of our service concept:

During Helen’s visit to physical marketplaces in China, many micro-entrepreneurs considered the e-Mobilizer service among their critical “needs.” In fact, some told Helen they will be “the first to sign on” once it’s available. This clearly indicates there is an unfulfilled need for this market without computer and Internet access.

Social benefit entrepreneurs from Africa and Latin America at GSBI program have also expressed the enthusiasm about the e-Mobilizer service. Some want to sign contracts with Helen immediately and use the service to solve their immediate needs.

People from Grameen Foundation and Grameen Phone have expressed interest in e-Mobilizer service. Conversations have been held with Grameen Phone to discuss possible collaboration and develop partnerships.

Partnership as a Differentiator
We feel we need strong strategic partners to give our business model a powerful differentiation against future competition, especially for distribution channels to both buyers and seller. Helen and Steve both plan to go to China to work on the following potential partnerships:

Develop partnerships with the management of some physical marketplaces to have them buy in, ideally getting oral agreements on internal promotion for sellers to try the system.

Develop strategic relationships with handset vendors and banking services that have the same customer base with us. We would encourage our mutual customers to upgrade their phones and get micro-loans with our partners.

Explore the possibilities of a 2008 Beijing Olympics contract. There is an effort from the government to channel ethnic goods and arts and crafts to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, because of the fragmented market, no one has figured out how to do this, presenting a great opportunity since we exist to address this challenge.

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