It looks like North Korea has its very own Amazon like online shopping service now with likely few people to use it:
Online shopping has arrived in North Korea, though it is as isolated from the rest of the world as the country itself, and the vast majority of North Koreans lack the technology to use it.
The website Okryu, aimed primarily at smartphone users, offers products from North Korean companies including women’s clothing, bags, shoes, medicine, cosmetics, furniture and food. Payment, in local currency only, is taken from the main North Korean debit card system.
To keep it all hermetically sealed, the site works not on the World Wide Web but on North Korea’s own intranet, a self-contained version of the Internet set up and maintained strictly for domestic use.
North Koreans call it the “domestic web” and it’s been around for years, but not used very much, largely because very few North Koreans have personal-use computers that can go online at all.
Smartphone use, however, is growing, and Okryu’s presence suggests that the government does not consider the technology to be a threat to the country’s rigid social order. (…………..)
Okryu is managed by the General Bureau of Public Service, a government organization that oversees shops, restaurants and producers of consumer goods. Bureau official Jong Sol Hwa recently confirmed the online shopping site, announced with much pride by state media last month, is up and running.
It is impossible to say how popular the new site is or if the average North Korean shopper is even aware of it. The site’s managers have not announced statistics about page views, unique users or sales volume. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
After reading this article it struck me that North Koreans are doing what many small business owners in South Korea are already doing by setting up small shops in front of their homes in various neighborhoods:
More residents are enjoying the convenience of using home-run stalls selling simple items, compared to conventional marketplaces that come with restrictions in operating hours, Daily NK has learned.
“You can sell and buy goods from these residential stalls as long as you have an established level of trust with the owner,” a source based in South Pyongan Province told the Daily NK on Thursday. “More people are converting rooms in their homes and selling goods day and night.”
This foundation of trust is bolstered by three chief pillars: the customer has evidence of a steady source of revenue, and is neither an undercover official looking to crackdown on the operations, or a swindler hoping to cut and run with the goods. Passing muster can take time and requires a number of others within the right circles for validation.
According to the source, these home-operated stalls started popping up in the 1990s, mostly around schools to sell snacks to students. Starting a few years ago, more people have been converting or extending parts of their homes and selling electronics–namely televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines–and food in bulk. [Daily NK]
You can read more at the link.
