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Nokia Beta Labs is out with a new application/service for emerging markets – Nokia Listings. Still in beta, the new service is designed to connect buyers and sellers, as well as job seekers and employers. Moreover, it also allows local service providers to promote their offering to mobile phone users.
Apparently, the majority (60%+) of the hiring and consumer-to-consumer transactions, like apartment rentals, in emerging markets currently occur via word-of-mouth or through middlemen who charge a hefty commission for their services. Nokia Listings is created to kill the middlemen and bring the benefits of a digital marketplace to users of basic mobile phones (Series 40) requiring no mobile data connection at all. All communication is done via SMS, though GPRS (or EGDE or 3G) is also supported.
In order to access the service, users don’t need to register. Each listing is geo-coded so that the user is able to find the services nearest to his or her place. Once you find a listing, you can either call or SMS the other party through the application or forward listings via SMS to a friend.
During the beta trial period, Nokia Listings is only available to users in select regions of India with other parts of the country (and I guess other countries, too) to get the service in the near future…
[Via: Nokia Beta Labs Blog]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
