Internet Businesses in the DR

[Texas Bill]

I think PIB is right.

Most of the advertising is done via newspapers, tv and roadside signs.
Most businesses depend on repeaters, walk-ins and referals. Internet stores and marketing are possibly the wave of the distant future. Until Dominicans adopt the buying habits of the hated Norteamericanos and Europeans, Internet businesses will remain in limbo.

Texas Bill

 

[NALs]

Maybe you should offer some help or let dominicans know how easy it might be to get a credit card (I'm not sure how easy it is downthere). Put some Visa or MasterCard link on your web which would direct your customers without a credit card, to a credit card application. Then, they can start to use the plastic to buy stuff from your web page. Then I would suggest for you to start another business, this time a service to help dominicans imbedded in credit card debt, in other words, a credit card debt counseling agency. It's almost certain that many dominicans would get the card and max them out on your web site, the nicest thing that can be done (for a fee of course) is help them get out of such thing. The nice thing of all of this is A) You will probably have two successful profitable businesses B) You will teach dominicans how to be more responsible with their credit in the long run C) and dominicans will continue to have a growing population which will ensure business for years to come. This tip would only be "nice" to follow if you are desperate and don't want to lose your business. Its important to note, this is not a tried and tested tip but it makes alot of sense and it should work.

 

[Robert]

Here is the problem.

Most Dominicans only have or can only get RD$ credit cards.
These are not accepted by 99.9% of credit card payments processors.
Most third party online credit card processors are USA based.

Solution...

We have a local service in the DR that will process local RD$ cards online.
The problem is the process of actually making a payment is not easy and from the people I know using the service, it's really not that good and still being developed.

Catch 22, you might have the best marketing campaign online for your shop, but if you can't take a payment, it will fail.

 

[bob saunders]

Interesting what you say about DR Credit cards. My wife has used her BHD Credit card and her BankCredito Card many times here in Canada many times without a problem.

 

[kraiosis]

you are not wrong

Hache, Queipo, but I could be wrong.

In the beginnig was a project of Rubycom (F. Abreu), and Medios Digitales (Queipo, hache) but because of the low hits stats and the initial spends of the portal F. Abreu (Rubycom) decide to part away. and Now uepa.com is online because of the Queipo, Haches family relatinos thats help to get support from the bigiest companies as Presidente and the mayor high class stores in the country.

When they started the project it was nice clean, multitopics, etc. but now they only provide information about parties and reunions (Night Life). and its exacly want peopleo of www.gentecaribe.com or www.bonche.com does.

 

[Robert]

Interesting what you say about DR Credit cards. My wife has used her BHD Credit card and her BankCredito Card many times here in Canada many times without a problem.

And that's normal if she has a US$ facility linked to her credit card.
As I said, some can get it, but many can't.

 

[Robert]

Re: you are not wrong

In the beginnig was a project of Rubycom (F. Abreu), and Medios Digitales (Queipo, hache) but because of the low hits stats and the initial spends of the portal F. Abreu (Rubycom) decide to part away. and Now uepa.com is online because of the Queipo, Haches family relatinos thats help to get support from the bigiest companies as Presidente and the mayor high class stores in the country.

When they started the project it was nice clean, multitopics, etc. but now they only provide information about parties and reunions (Night Life). and its exacly want peopleo of www.gentecaribe.com or www.bonche.com does.

The market is way too small for 3 sites to all be doing the same thing. I would love to know the "real" traffic numbers for these sites.

I'm sure the ROI for advertisers is very low.

 

[Bonche.com]

Hello! I'm the editor for one of the websites mentioned here www.bonche.com. We checked our stats today and noticed some refereed traffic from this thread.

Bonche.com came to be as part of a bigger cluster of websites. This particular site targets the Dominican nightlife and currently works with 38 of the best establishments in the country and over 68 party organizers and promoters. We receive an average over 3,000 uniques a day, 56% domestic, 42% foreign, 2% military or unknown. Most of our foreign traffic is thru search engines, since we have optimized our code structure for search engines.

I'd like to point out that the biggest failure I can observe in the local market is the lack of know-how a lot of marketers I've met tend to have towards the web. Even lacking knowledge in telling the difference between hits and unique hits, Opt-in Vs. Spam or Banner Click-thrus and conversion ratios. So, on their campaigns they buy ad space on sites without verifying traffic or sites which do not relate to their product, simply because the salesman told them the internet is viewed by millions and gave them a "good deal".

Regarding credit cards, we think that the best, and probably the only, way you'll get a local online store to sell to Dominican consumers would be on the B2B level. Businesses ordering parts and materials from other businesses. We ran a survey last year regarding on-line shopping, since it was our first idea, and the most common answer selected was "I'd rather drive to the store", when it came to shopping for things they'd normally wouldn't think twice of buying on amazon.com.

My background, I come from the online casino industry and have managed over 116 websites related to this area of the internet, helping iGlobalMedia, the company I worked for, rank in the top 3 online casino companies during my 3 years as director there. I aided and oversaw the creation of some of the highest grossing casino sites.

Thanks for mentioning our site.
www.bonche.com

 

[gilbert]

How about making a dating site or an online auction site? Just a couple ideas. Anyways, is there anywhere in the DR with an extremely fast internet connection? T1 maybe?

 

[kraiosis]

How about making a dating site or an online auction site? Just a couple ideas. Anyways, is there anywhere in the DR with an extremely fast internet connection? T1 maybe?

you got the point... in maybe two weeks www.macoris.net will integrate a dating section so people here can know other people but this is just for San Pedro de Macoris province.. there was a dating site log time ago developed by some friends but it was more a hobbie than business.


T1. there are a lot of companies that have T1 connctions. For exmple www.netnwaresystems.com i design the page for them. when i was there the connection was T1 i dont know now there are also other companies that have T1, most of them supplied by codetel and a few more by tricom.

 

[gilbert]

How much are we looking at as far as costs go for a t1 connection. Or even a very fast connection in SD about the same speed as cable/lan in North America

 

[NALs]

The Dominican Telecommunications industry is at par with that of the most developed nations. Just about (if not every) communication device/style/service is offered in the republic. However, not all are offered by one single company. Check the three main: CODETEL, TRICOM, and France Telecom (are they still in dominicana?)

 

[kraiosis]

The Dominican Telecommunications industry is at par with that of the most developed nations. Just about (if not every) communication device/style/service is offered in the republic. However, not all are offered by one single company. Check the three main: CODETEL, TRICOM, and France Telecom (are they still in dominicana?)

yes they are .. also Centennial (AACR)

 

[simpson Homer]

What about Canada?

So what about in Canada are you going to bring coffe too?

Homer Simpson

 

[kraiosis]

To ElCafetero

Hello,

few months ago i have design a logo for a caffe store but by changing the name and colors i think you would like yo see it... if you want to see the sample ... , in case you are interested, just tell me and ill put it online for you... so you can decide to pay for it

 

[kraiosis]

As I promised

now http://www.macoris.net/amigos/ has the dating service (Only For San Pedro de Macor?s citizens).... few codes and walaaaaaaaaaa!