E-commerce has risen to the point where just about everybody is an e-commerce company, and that goes even beyond retailers of goods. To understand that trend and to see how far it might stretch, we talk about the adoption of chat and social commerce in emerging markets with Ramy Assaf, Ceo of Zbooni, a Dubai-based fintech/commerce startup. He tells us how he came to build Zbooni, what it's like working with Facebook, why Square and Shopify are model companies for his firm, and how consumer behavior is changing amidst everything that's happened in the last year.

Topics Covered

• 2:30 minute mark - Ramy’s background
• 5:30 – The Zbooni origin story and the new way of selling
• 12:00 – Working with Facebook
• 14:30 -  Going from point product to product suite, with Shopify and Square as examples
• 18:30 – Facebook’s role in e-commerce
• 22:00 – Facebook integration
• 30:30 - Chatcommerce vs. e-commerce and the e-commerce myth
• 34:00 – The breadth of ‘e-commerce’ in 2020
• 37:00 - COVID environment and the role of cash
• 44:30 - COVID reaction and SMB vs. enterprise
• 49:30 - COVID reaction and the user behavior
• 57:30 - Services vs. goods and changing behavior for services businesses
• 1:04:30 – Amazon’s enduring example
• 1:14:00 - The post-covid world 
• 1:20:30 - Fundraising in Covid
• 1:24:00 - Customer perspective on pre-paying
• 1:34:00 - What’s next for Zbooni