Chile Cyber Day: Black Friday, Cyber Monday Spinoff Attempt Unsuccessful
More than two dozen companies participated in the first ever "Cyber Day" in Chile, which mimicked Cyber Monday -- except it was not during the normal holiday shopping season.
The 24-hour online shopping day took place Tuesday and included notable names like Groupon, Adidas, Air France and other travel sites and a Living Social affiliate.
The site is being monitored by the Electronic Commerce Committee, which is a part of the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago, according to La Tercera.
Similar cyber sale days, including Cyber Monday, have been previously marred by tech errors and caused frustration among Chileans, according to Bio Bio Chile. The national monitoring department, SERNAC, announced that in order to keep track of the status of the sites and companies involved, as well as the transactions, a social media hashtag, "#sernacciberday," could be used. The Sernac director, Ernesto Muñoz, said there would be constant oversight, by visiting the various websites, to find any shortcomings or irregularities.
Within minutes of the launch, some sites like Groupon, and two others, had error loading, according to Bio Bio Chile. But those were not the only issues as some customers complained that the offers were not good and called them "petty."
Some tweets indicated that the deals were seen in newspapers, or were not different from a similar offer elsewhere online. One tweeter even suggested waiting till Cyber Monday because the offers would be better.
Though local news media are calling it the first-ever Cyber Day, the tweets indicate there have been similar attempts at a day-long event, sans the title.
The initiative was supposed to utilize the enthusiasm that is seen in cyber sales around the world -- and Hispanics make up a large population of the online buyers. In the U.S. among Black Friday shoppers, Hispanics make up 40 percent of shoppers that use mobile apps, according to a 2013 report.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com