Chaupaati’s mission is to aggregate information of unorganized markets and connect Indian masses to it.

And while we strive to do this, we have been able to create a platform to collect information, sort it, store it, search through it, filter through it, and broadcast it to a targeted audience on request. This platform is the heart of Chaupaati’s service that went LIVE in June 2008 in Mumbai. Since then we have been able to connect thousands of people to buy or sell cars, computers, real estate, mobile phones; to rent homes and offices; and to scrap old stuff at home. We have been pleasantly surprised with the user adoption to various categories and service offerings.

And now we would want to use this platform for something beyond the realms of business.

Well, how many times have you come across chain emails and blanket SMSs sent out to large mailing lists, urgently asking for a particular blood group for someone in hospital? We believe such situations need more adept and efficient handling via a much broader information platform; and are thus initiating a free Blood Donor Information service. Through Chaupaati, people can directly connect with volunteers who have pledged blood donation - all with just one phone call!

We are calling for volunteers (in Mumbai currently) to pledge blood donation. Here is how you can help:

1. Call us at 9222221947 and pledge blood donation
2. Tell us your blood group, age and contact number
3. As and when a requirement comes up, we will send you an SMS with the patient’s contact number
4. We will also send your contact number to the patient
5. Speak to them, donate, smile

Chaupaati will maintain an active database of these volunteers (blood group, age, contact number). People in need of blood can call Chaupaati to instantly get contacts of matching donors through SMS. By organizing this free service for the people of Mumbai today, we are doing our bit that takes us a step closer to our mission.

Call Chaupaati at 9222221947 now to pledge blood donation and be a part of it.

If you define an entrepreneur as someone who earns a living without being on the payroll of a registered business, then an absolute majority of earning Indians are entrepreneurs. These self-employed bread-earners hustle and haggle everyday to sustain hand-to-mouth living. These entrepreneurs keep the Indian engine running and are the key drivers of India’s GDP. With the increasing upward mobility of the bottom-of-the-pyramid, they would also become the primary growth drivers of the Indian economy.

Entrepreneurs dream. That’s what they do! Oscar Wilde said “All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”. Entrepreneurs persistently look for new opportunities, and those who have a stable income consistently look for alternate sources of income. The mobile phone has become an important weapon for these entrepreneurs to discover new money-making opportunities and alternate income.

The mobile phone does not judge, it does not ask for a license or permit, it does not disable, it does not impose restrictions. The mobile phone is a medium that helps circumvent the brokers whose primary purpose is to gate-keep access and information, and helps short-circuit to brokers whose primary purpose is fulfillment and material movement. Services that enable such effect can greatly profit from accelerating the pace at which these entrepreneurs can enrich their own lives and set India on an explosive growth path.

Monsoons are not the best time for the electronics on your shelves or in your pockets. Every monsoon, my television conks off and the circuit board needs to be dried with a hair dryer to make it work again. We must watch mandatory hours of television everyday to keep the circuit dry so the unit runs smoothly. Panasonic authorized dealers (as recommended in the warranty booklet, if you happened to store it somewhere) dilly-dally you for an appointment for 3-4 days and then charge Rs. 700/- per visit to get the job done. It is quite frustrating to wait for them to come through especially when the Euro Championships are on, and there is live scheduled programming that you must watch.

Yesterday morning, I serendipitously received an SMS from JustDial (which I am a fan of) prompting me to call them if I needed a TV technician. So I did, and after a one minute call, received an SMS with contacts of 5 technicians in my neighborhood. I called the nearest one, and after a two minute call with a person who understood the problem, an appointment was scheduled for later in the evening. When I got home for dinner, the TV was up and running with a total damage of Rs. 350/-. I was watching the news of a juvenile skirmish amongst Congress party workers during a rally in Mumbai. Life as usual.

An ordeal that I had accepted to live with as a consumer every once a year, had turned into a seamless fix. This is the power of information flow over the phone, and how millions of Indians are using the phone as a medium to make their daily lives better. Lowering the convenience barrier for a large number of consumers, is not just about making old things easier. It usually amounts to making new things happen, which were earlier not possible. Many large businesses pop out of nowhere when they are able to address this latent need in seemingly obvious ways. In India, the phone presents a medium to tap into many such opportunities.

Dharavi is a slum of over a million souls packed into a single square mile in the heart of Mumbai, India. It holds the dubious distinction of being the largest slum in Asia. Families of 15 crowd into 300-square-feet tenements, sharing the space with many more mice. It’s hard to imagine the people of Dharavi as consumers moving up the economic ladder, but that is precisely what is happening.

Kashyap Deorah moved back to India from the US recently, and has spent the last several months visiting Dharavi to understand its micro-economy. Every street in Dharavi is home to an electronics dealer. The main business is used cell phones and prepaid SIM cards; India now has over 246 million cell phone subscribers, with the number growing at a scorching pace. One of the hottest items is — hold your breath — used flat screen LCD televisions! Surprising, yet clear enough when you think about it: space is at a premium, so slum-dwellers behave rationally in opting for flat screen televisions.

This anecdote illustrates the demand for used consumer durables of all kinds among the upwardly-mobile masses in India. McKinsey has published a fantastic study on how the rapidly expanding Indian economy is creating new consumers. This study divides Indian households into 5 segments based on household income: Globals, Strivers, Seekers, Aspirers, and Deprived. The Globals are the super-rich elite; the Strivers and Seekers constitute the middle class; and the Deprived are the destitute outside the pale of consumption.

The most interesting class are the Aspirers: these are not quite destitute or middle-class, but are upwardly mobile and aspire to enter the middle class. Today, only 5% of Indian households are in the middle class, 41% are Aspirers, and 54% are Deprived. In 2025, the study expects the middle class to have swelled to 41% of households, the Aspirers to remain steady at 36%, while the Deprived drop to 22% of households. What is happening is a massive shift of households from Aspirers to middle class and from Deprived to Aspirers. The people of Dharavi are among today’s Aspirers and tomorrow’s middle class.

Aspirers cannot afford new cell phones, or televisions, or washing machines. But there is huge demand for used cell phones, televisions, and consumer durables of all kinds. In India today, the market for used consumer durables is extremely inefficient, and relies primarily on word-of-mouth. A free flow of information about demand and supply can make the market efficient, and also help millions of people take their first steps to becoming consumers.

Given the almost universal penetration of cell phones among Aspirers in India, the natural solution would seem to be a solution that uses mobile phones to help people buy and sell used goods. Kashyap has started a company named Chaupaati Bazaar (named after a famous beachside bazaar in Mumbai) to do just this. The problem is challenging: create a used goods market, make it work entirely through SMS and voice (no web interface), make it work for a semi-literate user base speaking many languages, and figure out the business model. Not a challenge for the faint-hearted, but something that could really make a difference if it can be made to work. I’m proud to join Chaupaati’s Board of Directors as its lead investor.

Dr. C.K. Prahalad is famous for coining the phrase “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.” The bottom of the pyramid consists of the poorest section of the world’s population, who are not viewed as a viable market by most consumer products companies. There are 4 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid, out a world population of 6 billion. This is an opportunity to use technology to eliminate friction at the bottom of the pyramid, enabling at least some of those people to climb the rung to the middle class.

Initially posted on Datawocky by Anand Rajaraman.