Kenya’s mobile telephones: Vital for the poor | Hacker News Reader

Kenya’s mobile telephones: Vital for the poor

economist.com

42 pointsdenzil_correa20 comments

> Almost half of those surveyed were using internet-enabled smart or “feature” phones. The scratch cards that many Kenyans use to charge their mobiles have recently begun to advertise their value in terms of data rather than talk time. Meanwhile, mobile-phone operators have been giving free access to sites such as Wikipedia to entice customers.

> Still, only 16% of respondents said they were using their phones to browse the internet.

The iHub report I read said that 88% of Kenyans browse the Internet with their mobile phone instead of 16%. The same report says that 99% of Internet access from Kenya is through a mobile device. I think the Western world assumes people in developing countries are dependent on computers for Internet access because of the popularity of the One Laptop Per Child program. I think we should recognize that the developing world will probably never have the resources or desire to adopt laptops or personal computers and so we should instead focus on providing them with web-content sized for their devices and hardware organizations such as OLPC should look into reducing the cost of smartphones. In my personal experience an android device in Africa costs at minimum of $200.

Reading this article reminds me that there is a huge demand for mobile Internet in developing world and few companies are capitalizing on this.

>> Still, only 16% of respondents said they were using their phones to browse the internet.

> The iHub report I read said that 88% of Kenyans browse the Internet with their mobile phone

Maybe 18.2% of Kenyans browse the internet at all, and 88% of those (16% of all Kenyans) do it on their phones?

You have personal experience with "Africa"? African countries have much less in common with each other than non-Africans tend to imagine. That being said, I agree with you regarding computer adoption.

A new, low end Droid can be had for roughly $50 contract-free in my city, Nairobi.

Awesome, I am developing mobile software in Cape Town and wish Android phones had a higher adoption rate so I could build gps enabled apps for medical workers. Nairobi has a reputation for being the most tech forward city in Africa and hearing you can buy android phones for $50 there adds to that.

For the record I'm not African. I've been in rsa for only three months.

That sounds interesting. Are you building on SMS/USSD or J2ME?

For now just web and SMS. I am not sure which platform to use if my cohorts and I decide expand our project outside of Cape Town. Shoot me an email at me@davecro.com if you would like to talk more about it. I'd be interested in hearing about your work in Nairobi. Cheers, David

What percentage of the populace could afford such a device and the data plan? For what percentage would that be true for with a $25 device?

To add to what davycro said, entry level Android devices are becoming price competitive with feature phones. Phones are seen as a long term investment, so poorer families often make sacrifices to acquire them. It wouldn't be unheard of for one to spend up to half their monthly income on the purchase.

Mobile data costs KSH. 8/MB, about 10 US cents at its most expensive. This is still out of reach for a sizeable portion of the working population, but the situation is rapidly improving.

I think most people in cape town will spend up to $100 for a phone. It's by far the most important possession here. Data plans are prepaid.

> Reading this article reminds me that there is a huge demand for mobile Internet in developing world and few companies are capitalizing on this.

I think IBM has recognized this and they are indeed trying to develop unique solutions. I know of one project called "Spoken Web" which is an Internet of spoken websites than traditional textual content. This was meant for people who can't read or write but can speak in local languages. There was at least one pilot study which was conducted with farmers. I guess they have even deployed the solution in one of the Indian states.

[0] http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_project.php...

> The real breakthrough in the Kenyan market has been in people’s ability to send and receive money, with more than two-thirds doing so by phone. East Africa’s biggest success has been M-Pesa, a mobile-based money-transfer system pioneered by Safaricom, a leading Kenyan operator. Its simple interface, which works on any phone, has brought financial services to Kenya’s poor majority, enabling the movement of some $8.6 billion in the first half of this year.

These examples show that applications of any particular technology can vary from a developed country to a developing or a poor country. I also think such solutions will help reduce latency, corruption and inconsistencies leading to much better governance.

Meanwhile, mobile-phone operators have been giving free access to sites such as Wikipedia to entice customers.

This is great!

Am I being pessimist in thinking that this is just a test for "value-added" services that will in the future charge you for access to select websites or services?

Net neutrality dies with free wikipedia and blocked Skype.

No, you aren't but one step at a time!

Although, wouldn't Facebook better serve that purpose assuming FB is as popular there as it is here?

I often wonder why we can't have something similar here already. Seems like the perfect way for parents to send their kids money at short notice.

Well, we do have some options here, but part of the reason why it was so easy to setup over there is lack of laws around the movement of money.

As usual, laws prevent innovations to protect the incumbent (banks and credit card companies)

The solution for that exists, and is called Paypal, but the general perception seems that that service is shady.

Here is something we spotted: that one-fourth of Kenya's GDP flows through this mobile payment system called mPesa

http://statspotting.com/2011/04/kenyas-m-pesa-the-unbelievab...

TFS - I see you draw heavily from a report from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [0]. I found this part very interesting.

> Safaricom also benefited from launching the service in a country which contained several enabling conditions for a successful mobile money deployment, including: strong latent demand for domestic remittances, poor quality of available financial services, a banking regulator which permitted Safaricom to experiment with different business models and distribution channels, and a mobile communications market characterized by Safaricom’s dominant market position and low commissions on airtime sales.

If these indeed are the parameters, one should make a list of countries which satisfy these requirements and do some compare/contrast study.

[0] http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.43376/Mob...

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