Bikroy.com is a classified advertisement website operating in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is available in both

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. The website is owned by a global tech firm – Saltside Technologies.

Overview

Bikroy.com was launched in 2012 and has sections dedicated to private and business advertisements for cars and vehicles, property, electronics, home appliances and personal items, sports and hobby items, and jobs, among others. The site came into the local media spotlight following a formal press conference event held in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

on 18 October 2012.

Paid features

Memberships

Bikroy launched membership services in May 2016, which allowed users to have a dedicated page of their own with business details, photos, and all their advertisements. Members could post extended numbers of advertisements through different membership packages and receive free promotions, shop stickers,

business card Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company or business aff ...

s , and a dedicated team for assistance.

Banner advertisements

Advertisers can purchase banner placements on the desktop, mobile, and app versions of the site.

Buy Now

The platform allows buying products directly online and receiving the product by home delivery using the service called buy now.

History

2012

On 18 October 2012, Bikroy was formally launched in a press conference held in Bangladesh's capital city

but had begun operations in June earlier that year. In November 2012, Bikroy was named as the "Country's first bilingual classified website" by ''The Daily Star'' as it supported

and English languages.

2013

In 2013, "Bikroy.com" was the 4th most searched keyword in Bangladesh that year on Google. The company gained over 500,000 fans on Facebook.

2014

During this year, the company opened a total of five offices in Bangladesh and their Facebook page reached 2,000,000 fans.

2015

The launch of Bikroy application on

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

was one of the major milestones that year.

2016

This year the company launched a Membership service for small businesses, allowing them to advertise their products under their own page on Bikroy. Bikroy was ranked in the top three, right after Facebook and Google, by a Millward Brown survey on top of mind preference conducted on over a thousand Bangladeshi internet users, marking the second time the company ranked in the top 3 in the last 2 years.

2017

Over the year 2017, Bikroy introduced its online job portal and entered an agreement with one of the ride-sharing apps in Bangladesh,

Pathao Pathao ( bn, পাঠাও); is a Bangladeshi on-demand digital platform company headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The company operates in four cities of Bangladesh: Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna,Sylhet and in two cities of Nepal : Kathmandu and ...

, as its official recruitment partner. In the annual Kantar Millward Brown survey, Bikroy lost its 3rd position rank to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and is currently ranked 4th this year followed by

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

, and

in Bangladesh. Keeping its promise on gender parity with the #HeForShe campaign, Bikroy grew its workplace female-employee ratio by 7% from the previous year as a part of their Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) signatories – a collaboration between

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and focu ...

and the UN Global Compact.

2018

For the 3rd consecutive year, Bikroy has been the top-rated online marketplace among all e-commerce websites in Bangladesh. It has been awarded the “Top of Mind” award based on the results of the “Online Brand Health: Market Research Report”, which is a survey of 2400 internet users by Somra MBL Ltd. According to the same survey, Bikroy is in 4th place among global websites in Bangladesh after Facebook, Google & YouTube. The survey results also showed that the largest share of preference by customers on its platform is for the buying and selling of mobile phones. Bikroy partnered with

Aarong Aarong ( bn, আড়ং, lit=Village Fair) is a chain of Bangladeshi department stores specializing in Bengali ethnic wear and handicrafts. It is owned by the non-profit development agency BRAC, and employs thousands of rural artisans acr ...

to become its official recruitment partner for publishing all available job opportunities on Bikroy.com/jobs.

is an enterprise of one of the largest social development organizations in Bangladesh - BRAC. Bikroy.com has made itself a medium for the buying and selling of cattle during Qurbani – the largest religious festival in Bangladesh. Bikroy arranged the “Bikroy Qurbani Show” to showcase cattle that are to be sold in its online platform as a one-day display event for Eid-Ul-Azha. The event comes to highlight with its #BiratHaat campaign to offer customers to view the sacrificial animals before purchasing them online. Bikroy.com arranged #ILoveBangladesh story writing competition and the winners were announced in celebration of Victory Day. The award ceremony was held on 19 December 2018, with special guests including the freedom fighter and musician martyr

Altaf Mahmud Altaf Mahmud ( bn, আলতাফ মাহমুদ; 23 December 1933 – September 1971) was a musician, cultural activist, and martyred freedom fighter of the Bangladesh Liberation War. He was also a language activist of the Language Movement ...

's daughter Shawan Mahmud.

2019

In the year of 2019, Bikroy made several partnerships based Bikroy Deals campaigns such as Valentine Deals with Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Beach Resort & Spa as the ‘’Hospitality Partner’’ & US-Bangla Airlines Ltd. as the ‘’Travel Partner’’,

Boishakh Boishakh (, ne, बैशाख, ''Bôishakh'', ''Baishakh'') is the first month in the Assamese calendar, Bengali calendar and Nepali calendar. This month lies between the second half of April and the first half of May. Etymology The name of ...

i Deals with Minister Hi-Tech Park Limited, Ramadan Deals with Minister Hi-Tech Park Limited, HMD Global (the sole importer of

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

in Bangladesh) and US Bangla Airlines Limited. Bikroy launched the Biraat Haat campaign for the fifth time on the occasion of

Eid-ul-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's comm ...

. 13 winners from the buyer contest participants and 3 winners from the member contest participants were selected from all over the country and were provided with gifts, courtesy of Minister Hi-Tech Park Limited. In August 2019, Bikroy reached

break-even Break-even (or break even), often abbreviated as B/E in finance, (sometimes called point of equilibrium) is the point of balance making neither a profit nor a loss. Any number below the break-even point constitutes a loss while any number above i ...

for the first time since its 7 years of operation in Bangladesh. The company's Global CEO and Acting Managing Director Nils Hammar announced this auspicious news at the half-yearly event arranged for the employees. In 2019, Bikroy published infographics on the Cars, Mobile and Livestock market of Bangladesh based on the data acquired from the user activity on Bikroy’s website.

Corporate social responsibility

Bikroy joined the global list of Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) signatories – a collaboration between

and the UN Global Compact. It joined the

HeForShe HeForShe, often referred to as He for She, is a solidarity movement for the advancement of gender equality, initiated by the United Nations. Grounded in the idea that gender inequality is an issue that affects all people, socially, economicall ...

movement in 2015. Bikroy initiated a platform for their female employees - “Moner Janala”, where they can share their workplace challenges or other concerns.

Achievements

# In 2016, Bikroy for the second time in a row was ranked in the top three internet sites in Bangladesh by Milward Brown's Top of Mind (TOM) survey. The survey was conducted on 1008 local internet users in Bangladesh. # Bikroy partnered with a2i in August 2016 to implement e-commerce services, establish training institutes, and create support for developing polytechnic skills for the rural people of Bangladesh. # Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) awards Bikroy as the Best Online Classified Website 2016. # Bikroy.com was awarded the winner in the “Internet” category for its exceptional online presence at the 13th Employer Branding Awards Presents Bangladesh Best Employer Brand Awards 2018. Bikroy was also declared the winner at the CMO Asia Presents Bangladesh Master Awards 2018 for the “Brand Leadership Award” due to their outstanding brand identity and leadership for online business in Bangladesh.

References

External links

* {{Official website, bikroy.com
Bikroy Blog
Online marketplaces of Bangladesh Online companies of Bangladesh