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Azerbaijani entrepreneur`s project to be implemented in Türkiye, Georgia and Central Asia 05.12.23

Electronic commerce grows as the Internet infrastructure and payment methods improve. Millions of individuals now purchase and sell any item over the Internet. In this scenario, we usually observe the sale and purchase of various forms of real estate, automobiles, and other things.

Azerbaijan has linked another innovation in the realm of e-commerce. BonPara LLC has developed and presented to its users an electronic trading platform with financial support and collection of subscription fees (payments) as part of its new initiative in this regard. Target audience of the platform are creative individuals such as bloggers, programmers, designers, photographers, etc. Orkhan Ahmadov, director and project manager of MMC, stated that, in foreign countries, such individuals make money either by cooperating with social media platforms, or by supporting their followers and paying them a certain amount of money.

In Azerbaijan, however, these people share their creative products on the Internet for no charge. Orkhan Ahmadov stated that BonPara acquired a start-up certificate for the "kofe.al" (buy a coffee) initiative with the aim of boosting the income of those persons. The project primarily focuses on delivering quick and simple solutions for e-commerce: "To be specific, a product is easily promoted and quickly sold on social networks via a complex e-commerce platform. Our target audience consists of digital creatives, freelancers and influencers who create helpful content online. That is why we launched the "kofe.al" (buy a coffee) initiative.

The entrepreneur noted that some counterparts of the "kofe.al" project exist in the USA and Europe, but Azerbaijani creators face significantly high commissions when using those solutions, and local customers have to pay additional VAT when ordering from those platforms. Creative people are given the opportunity to monetize their useful content through the "kofe.al" project. It is possible to help them by purchasing virtual coffee. The “coffee” in this case is merely a metaphor for real coffee. In any case, creative individuals can replace the term "coffee" with other words to their liking. Currently, over a thousand creative individuals are offered to register on the platform and support their fans. However, the primary goal of the project is to allow creative people to effortlessly sell their work. Creative individuals are encouraged to gain financial support for their content and sell digital items (software, design, e-books, etc.) and services (consulting, design work, etc.) using the company's streamlined e-commerce solution. "We have been working on the project for nearly a year. We opted to obtain a start-up certificate because we had already progressed from the testing stage to the fully operational stage. This will enable us keep the service commission low while also making the platform more appealing to potential customers and users. If we can lower our service fees, it will be reflected in the valuation approach of sellers that use our platform."

According to Orkhan Ahmadov, obtaining a start-up certificate can boost a start-up`s recognition and reliability. It ensures investors, partners and customers that the business has been recognized and backed by the appropriate authorities or organizations: "Additionally, we intend to forward the funds we save towards the development and growth of the project, thereby increasing the efficiency and usefulness of our work. This would enable us to present our new services at a discounted price or completely free of charge at the outset, making us more appealing against the backdrop of similar and competing ventures."

According to the entrepreneur, his projects are currently operational in the Azerbaijani market and further expanding. They plan to launch the similar project in the Turkish market in the upcoming weeks: "In terms of our line of business, the Turkish market is extremely appealing to us. Compared to Azerbaijan, both the advancement of e-commerce and the activities of creative individuals are significantly faster and more numerous in the Turkish market. We intend to enter the markets of Georgian and Central Asian markets next year. We are already establishing contacts with creative individuals in those markets, conducting system language and technical tests. We aim to become the region`s main provider of e-commerce and finTech solutions for creative individuals. Our project was accepted into one of the major acceleration centres, "500 Global", at the beginning of 2023, and received an investment of 100 thousand US dollars. We worked on the project with these funds and that was eventually set into motion. Subsequently, we intend to raise around one million dollars in investment over the next year in order to gain access to the markets stated above. We have already begun working in this regard, and we are establishing contacts with investment companies in both local and planned markets. We plan to use a portion of the funding to access new markets, while the remainder will be used to expand the team and services.”