Sabbir Ahmed is a digital marketer, motion graphics animator, web analyst and now entrepreneur. He maintained the highest performance standards within a diverse range of creating animated video, marketplace development, digital marketing and Web Analytics. Currently he is working on customer growth and acquisition, communications, product marketing, demand generation and customer success at KajKey.

Formation of KajKey

Sabbir Ahmed started his career through several companies in digital marketing sector which allowed him to develop his digital marketing skill through online based courses. Along that he also developed his animation skill.
In 2017 when he worked in Pathao as Digital marketing manager, he thought about starting a startup. He wanted to do something for skilled people, plan was to build up a platform where everyone can get benefited. But building such startup requires huge initial investment and attractive marketing campaign. Initially he used both his digital marketing and animation skills and build an animation firm, EndingScene.com; with another member in 2017 with a small initial amount of BDT 5 lac.

They started hunting clients and got a big project from a brokerage firm. The number of clients were increasing gradually and it was hard to manage the demand side. Which inspired him developing a certain platform where they could easily manage increasing demand side with broader supply side. They created links between both sides by creating google sheets where they put all the names of the animators. This also include some requirements of works. If they interested to take the requested task they can choose it. This is the primary stage of their startup. After getting investments
they formed a company in USA and connected with other investors. Later, they wanted to build up the system and the concept of kajKey appeared which is known as the first bangla freelancing platform. KajKey started its journey in October 2018. Now they have more than 40,000+ registered users among 75% freelancers and other 25% employers.

Business model

Anyone who wants to promote them by getting their own logo, banners, website, app, promotional videos are the employer of kajKey who post their respective demand on website and KajKey links it with a good freelancer who will willing to do the work with that price. Freelancer can see those posts and they bid for the task. A freelancer needs to sign up and build his profile. Then choose price, provide information about his skills and previous works. After completing a job there is a rating system where employer can rate them basis of their works. At the same time, freelancers can also rate their employer. KajKey use Bangla language as it will be easier for the bengali freelancers as they are expert in Bangla. We have many skilled people in our country but the main problem is the language. Most of them face difficulties dealing with English communication. So, KajKey is here to help them.

KajKey’s revenue is based on commission but they are planning to make the system subscription or features based. Many employers want to keep their post on the top in the website so for that they may need to pay these fees. In this stage, KajKey is not thinking about making profit right now, as it only think about the market growing.

A small businessman from new market was the first customer of KajKey who wanted to make a promotional video for social media at BDT 20 thousand. KajKey linked him to a freelancer residing at Sylhet who bided the project only at BDT 14 thousand. There is a minimum standard price for every work which is BDT 500. Any lower bid posted in the website will automatically update to BDT 500. Besides that, there is an option of hourly based work that can minimized the standard price. As it is fully online based, it operates throughout the country.

Differentiating KajKey

KajKey is different from other global competitors e.g.  Fiverr, UpWork. Though the concept of KajKey is simil but the key difference is that they work with Bangladeshi SMEs not with global companies. Kajkey only use Bengali in their system which is an added advantage for them. As it is based on online the payment system is very easy. They received payments through bKash, rocket and other mobile banking systems, eliminating requirement of physical payment. Moreover, not everyone holds credit card, KajKey offers solution which does not require any credit card. Though, international platforms are more lucrative as they pay high price but quantity is low. Whereas, approximately two crore of SMEs of Bangladesh are the prospects for KajKey and can be a competitive advantage for them. Right now, KajKey is working on introducing KajKey version 2 which is the most dynamic system. Freelancers place charge on the website for their services and if any employer is interested, they contact with the freelancers. And the freelancers also get notification. Easier payment system reduce difficulties to collect their remittance from foreign clients.

Marketing strategy

KajKey uses both online and offline marketing and their targeted segment is between 25-55 age group people. They have 8 developers and 12 people work on call center to help it’s user. KajKey’s users are mainly from SME sector. To promote themselves they want to have logos, website, different videos and all of these services they will get from KajKey.com. They mainly connect SME with the freelancers.

Challenges on the road

KajKey’s primary challenge is to educate people about the platform. More people are engaging in these sector but there is no specific guidelines for setting price. In fact, most of them do not know the right price or description for the service they are offering. To tackle this problem they have call center. The secondary challenge is the rules and regulation of payment system of our country.

Plan down the line

KajKey will launch app very soon to facilitate service for both employers and freelancers so that they can check and get notification easily. Moreover, they will arrange training programs for the freelancers and offer some full time job. It can be a very good source of income for anyone. For example, there are many freelancer who are students and they work during their vacation. KajKey’s future plan for five years is to capture at least 50% to 70% market share and arrange different soft skill development based seminars to enhance skills of our freelancers.

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