Online commerce: why such a triumph?

Audio 48:30

REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol / File Photo

By: Bruno Faure Follow

65 min

It is a sector that has been booming especially since the arrival of Covid-19: electronic commerce.

Immense progress for some, economic and environmental ineptitude for others.

As the end of year holidays approach, the debate rages on the survival of the so-called traditional trade.

Publicity

A debate strewn with questions which we will try to answer with our guests: should we better regulate the mastodons that have become Amazon, Alibaba and several others?

Should they be taxed? As some European leaders are asking.

On the contrary, should we encourage them to set up all over the world, so that they become growth levers for other smaller companies, but which benefit from these long-armed platforms?

How to deal with the problems of distortion of competition?

Our guests: 

-

economist, director of the Cetelem Observatory

-

 Senegalese journalist, founder and managing director of Cio Mag, a magazine dedicated to the technological sector, distributed in twenty African countries.

- Bertrand Hartemann,

specialist in innovation and digital disruption management, 10 years of experience shared between France and China.

►

For a few weeks in France, with the approach of the end-of-year holidays essential to the turnover of many traders, and while many were closed because of confinement, the debate has ignited.

How to prevent Amazon and others from taking advantage of the situation and selling even more than usual?

Some traders are getting organized.

Report Aabla Jounaidi for Eco from here, Eco from elsewhere.

EDI 2811 FRANCE JOUNAIDI

In Iwou, the large market in southern China and as elsewhere in the country, factories restarted at the end of spring 2020. The problem is that with the stoppage of air links, with the closure of borders , foreign buyers can no longer come.

So to continue exporting, the Iwou merchants have therefore embarked on live streaming, online sales videos.

A method that is gaining ground.

Stéphane Lagarde, our correspondent in China went to investigate for Eco d'Ici Eco elsewhere.

Report Stephane Lagarde

EDI 2811 CHINA LAGARDE

In Senegal, electronic commerce is on the rise.

Even though only one in five inhabitants has a bank account, e-commerce sites are on the rise - mainly in the capital, Dakar.

Nearly three quarters of Dakar residents are equipped with the internet.

Report for Eco from here, Eco from elsewhere, Théa Ollivier.

EDI 2811 SENEGAL OLLIVIER

In Rwanda, the government is banking on e-commerce to boost exports and reduce the country's trade deficit.

It was indeed the first African “hub” of the Chinese giant Alibaba, which opened its first e-commerce platform in Africa in 2018 (a second was opened last year in Ethiopia)… Report from our correspondent at Kigali, Laure Broulard, in the “Gorilla” coffee roasting plant, one of the emblematic coffee brands in Rwanda.

Report Laure Broulard

EDI 2811 RWANDA BROULARD

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