I moved to south east Asia and the phenomenon of a "hotline" openend my eyes.
Every business is basically a phone number that you can message. It does not matter if you buy a pizza or furniture, book a hotel or need someone to clean your sofa.
No website. No need to fill in forms. No platform fee.
I'm thinking about why this is not really how we do in the west. Would customers even want to get on the phone? I think my initial reaction if I was to contact a business through a hotline is that on the other side of the phone it will be a massive call center rather than the business directly which would make me cautious.
But just because it works that way there, doesn't mean it's right. There's nothing about SEA that implies to me the pinnacle of operational efficiency.
In south east asia, people dont' have very good phone or even smart phone in that matter, txt msg makes sense. The same to many african countries where dumb phones are still dominant.
I cannot speak for Africa, but this is not true of South East Asia.
Whilst cheap 'dumb' phones do still exist and are used, even low income earners in South East Asia tend to have a smart phone, and most of the business done as landgenoot says is conducted via Telegram, Facebook, or occasionally WhatsApp or Line.
There are also ways of paying using nothing but a phone number, but usually business is done on a smart phone where photos of products are are shared, delivery is arranged, and since COVID, most payments are done via QR codes that require a smart phone.
In my experience this is not only true of the cities, but also even out in the provinces.
this is the storyline that people should ideally internalize and realize that they do not know what they are talking about when commenting on others without having direct experience
Every business is basically a phone number that you can message. It does not matter if you buy a pizza or furniture, book a hotel or need someone to clean your sofa.
No website. No need to fill in forms. No platform fee.