GSMA Launches the GSMA Marketplace Online Commerce Platform for Telecom Buyers and Sellers

For anyone in the mobility industry GSMA are for letters you are more than familiar with. Representing the interests of nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies, membership includes members of the broad mobile ecosystem as well as organizations in adjacent industry sectors. Plus, it is maybe best known for producing Mobile World Congress and other mobile events around the world. And, if that were not enough, GMSA is now in the commerce business thanks to the launch of the GSMA Marketplace. 

As GSMA states in making the announcement, GSMA Marketplace is, “ the world’s first online commerce platform dedicated to the mobile industry that addresses inefficient procurement processes by bringing buyers and sellers together online to do business 365 days a year. The GSMA Marketplace is now open for firms to register with over 1,300 buyers and sellers from telecoms organizations already signed up to date.” 

“Whether you are a buyer looking for greater innovation or better prices in your procurement of products or services, or a seller seeking to win new business and enter new markets, the GSMA Marketplace will let you browse, contact and connect with companies who can help you achieve your objectives,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “Our members asked us to set up the GSMA Marketplace and as an industry association we are in a unique position to attract buyers and sellers in telecoms from all over the world. We are focused on establishing it as the premier online destination to do business in the future.”

Making mobility procurement simpler

The GSMA Marketplace has been designed to make procurement simpler and more efficient for both buyers and sellers. As noted in the introduction of the platform, connecting buyers and sellers in this vast business can be time-consuming and costly. 

So how is GSMA making the market more efficient?

The answer is simple and really does leverage GSMA’s unique standing in the mobile community. The GSMA Marketplace allows sellers to establish their own personalized online storefronts and promote their products and services to qualified buyers. Sellers will be able to upload their product and service catalogues and respond to instant Request for Proposals (RFPs) and other more complex queries. The GSMA Marketplace also includes a research tool called ‘Research Centre’ that enables buyers and sellers to analyze markets as well as potential partners and competitors.

The Research Centre is powered by our Web Visualization Tool, which takes the top 500 search results and shows them in a heat map format.

The GSMA Marketplace, which as noted already has a robust membership, will be free of charge to buyers, while sellers will be charged an annual subscription of $1,500. It will be rolled out in phases. The first phase will enable buyers to search, discover and make contact with sellers. Future phases of the GSMA Marketplace will be driven by buyer and seller feedback but could include formal accreditation of sellers as well as the ability to carry out transactions within the site.

Whether a trade association going into the commerce business in such a manner becomes a trend is certainly open to conjecture. However, if this serves as a place to get information and make the appropriate contacts its mission of making life easier by making procurement transactions less complicated is more than attainable. Indeed, it is obviously something that a significant number of its members have embraced.