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22:00
Mobile Web East Africa: Day One
» bankelele Mobile Web East Africa: Day One
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21:13
Childhood
» Learning to play I have never been one of those people who have nostalgic longings for childhood. Don't get me wrong, as far as childhoods go, I am pretty much convinced that I had about as close to a perfect childhood as one could wish for. My parents were loving, kind, successful and always present. I can't remember a single occasion when there was any kind of open conflict between my parent and I was always fully secure and confident in their love. School life as also pretty much a breeze, I was a popular athlete who did really well in class and was also a student leader. In fact, it was this almost picture perfect description of m childhood that first drew my attention to the complete absence of warm fuzzy feelings towards my childhood. If anyone should have loved their younger days it should have been me.
It was not until i reached college and had the opportunity to really experience life on my own that I realized where the feelings of dread that I associated with childhood came from: a feeling of lack of control. As a child you have absolutely no say in anything that happens to you, good or bad, and while I was fortunate enough to have ended up in a wonderful loving family, I could just as well have ended up with a mean family that I hated and there would have been very little that I could have done about it, especially in Kenya. The feeling is akin to what I feel when I think of a country like Switzerland, a land were everyone has a fairly high standard of living but is also subject to a highly controlled system where it is illegal for instance to buy food in neighboring France mainly because it is cheaper. While there are many who would do anything to live in a country like Switzerland, the very though of it stifles me.
Frankly, I think coming to the US and going through 5 years of school would seeing my parents has caused me to become sort of addicted to my independence. I am used to doing things without having to explain myself to anyone and accustomed to knowing that I will bear the consequences of my choices. I can not fathom reentering an world in which I will have to tell another person where I am going, why I am going there and when I will be back every time I leave the house. This is probably why the thought of relationships is also quite stifling to me. I know that I will have to let go og these sentiments at some point but not just yet. As a friend of mine used to say, I am still 'enjoying my stallion years', and see no reason why they should be cut short by a blind desire to join society in it blind addition to companionship.
So yeah, I don't long for my childhood, though other would probably kill for it and I am addicted to my independence. I wonder where these traits will lead me.
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20:00
Press Must Let Muhoho Modernize Airports
» You Missed This 
What is all these obsession with age? The media is all over crucifying Muhoho oblivious of the fact that fellow octogenarians PSs Mutahi and Nyoike are doing just fine. Grey hair if synonymous with wisdom alloyed with the right genes.
Kenyans never cease to amaze. Their penchant to witch hunt the really industrious and competent is legendary. Now the press wants to hound CEO Muhoho out of office before his term expires. What a disgrace to pay somebody who has turned the hitherto sleeping KAA into a profitable institution.
The press must give the KAA board the freedom to appoint the MD after the President did his constitutional part in appointing ex-Runyenjes MP Wambora chairman. Muhoho is no ordinary Joe, just ask Engineer Erastus Mwongera who thought he had the gravitas to take him head on.
True, Muhoho has served two mandatory terms plus a 12-month extension but he must be allowed to manage his succession given the capital investment KAA has initiated. You only entrust such heavy investment to upstarts at the nation's collective peril. The astute economist in the President cannot and won't allow that to happen.
Reign of octogenarians
Father Muhoho may be 72 years only but he is less than 30,000 days old. What is more, his short third term has witnessed phenomenon growth with Kisumu Airport destined to be upgraded to international status in addition to constructing Isiolo Airport to decongest JKIA and open up northern Kenya for prosperity.
We owe it to Muhoho that he helped whisk the notorious Artur brothers out of our borders. What more do we need from such a person with a passion to preserve national security? All the flack directed at him can only be traced to his his filial and royal relationship with President Kibaki. Leaves you asking whether an ex-priest cannot remain faithful to his flock?
The press better direct their tirades elsewhere instead of detracting Mzee Muhoho from his pet projects that will see JKIA join the league of world's leading Airports.
For Pete's sake, we don't eat politics. The press must desist from attacking the president via proxy. Washindwe!Kumekucha
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19:56
IRB 7's Wellington,New Zealand - Kenya in tough but manageable Pool
» Rugby in Kenya IRB 7's Wellington,New Zealand - Kenya in tough but manageable Pool
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10:00
Kampala – Uganda – “Desperate. Distraught”
» Black Looks From Uganda, Gay Uganda reports on continuing police harassment and roundups of LGBT people – “knock on the door” Desperate. Distraught. Now, the knock early morning on the door. We say we shall run. But, what if we cannot run? We have family, jobs, businesses. We are normal human beings. Common Ugandans. What of when we [...] -
Kampala – Uganda – “Desperate. Distraught”
» Black Looks From Uganda, Gay Uganda reports on continuing police harassment and roundups of LGBT people – “knock on the door” Desperate. Distraught. Now, the knock early morning on the door. We say we shall run. But, what if we cannot run? We have family, jobs, businesses. We are normal human beings. Common Ugandans. What of when we [...]
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7:42
SuperCup : AFC Leopards v/s Sofapaka
» SportsKenya The Kenyan football season's curtain raiser opens this weekend where last season's winners of the Kenya Premier League - Sofapaka and Football Kenya Limited (FKL) Cup - AFC Leopards will be playing for honours and prize money of around KShs. 500,000 for the winning team and the losing team, KShs. 250,000.
It shall be interesting seeing the new season start with much aplomb given the interest generated by the Africa Cup of Nations (though Kenya didn't make the cut) and the Mariga saga.
Both teams have also been building up for the new season with AFC having more controversies than successes. Sofapaka have managed to secure a couple of sponsors who will ensure they have the money to challenge for continental honours.
AFC have also made changes again to their technical bench as shown below;
Jean Marie Abeels has been elevated to the position of Technical Director,
Chris Makokha - Head Coach;
Roberto Bollen - First Assistant Head Coach;
Aggrey Imonje - Second Assistant Head Coach; and
Washington Muhanji as the Goalkeeper's Trainer.
Sunday 3p.m. at the Nyayo National Stadium and for those not in live with the smell of the raw nerves & sweat and the beautiful grass, catch it on SuperSport.
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6:27
Draft Constitution from PSC on Constitution Review
» Kenya Imagine Published here is the actual proposed constitution for Kenya that came out of the Naivasha conference of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review. The document has been forwarded to the Committee of Experts appointed to collect views and put them together in a form that could be presented to the Kenyan people for their approval. -
PSC report on the Draft Constitution
» Kenya Imagine -
Death by Dominoes
» Kenya Imagine When the assassins come they kill everyone. That is what you must understand. Death is coming. It's at the door. Though uttered weeks earlier, on a different cellblock, I still recall leaning forward in concentration, struggling to hear the words, striving to discern the meaning, if any, conveyed by Wannamaker's frog-like voice.
The old man didn't speak his words so much as he breathed them out, in a guttural rasp, as weak as a politician's promise, like a man talking reluctantly through a mouthful of marbles. Weeks later, perched on an overturned mop bucket wedged in the open doorway of my single-man cell, Wannamaker's enigmatic words were still gnawing along the margins of my mind. Those whispered words...How was I to know they'd be so prescient?
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1:45
Mobile Web East Africa – Stream
» White African [I probably won't be able to keep this up all day, but I'll try to blog/stream what's happening here at Mobile Web East Africa as best I can. Refresh for updates]
It’s day one of the Mobile Web East Africa conference in Nairobi. This is a new conference, started up in South Africa to great success, and now spreading to other regions of the continent.
Paul Kukubo of the ICT BoardPaul Kukubo, of the Kenya ICT Board, is talking about the future of tech in Kenya, and how the government’s aim is to be a major hub for technology in the region. Explaining how the changes in the industry are brought into context for the government’s vision 2030. He talks about mobile payments, digitizing of government documents and processes, developing software standards and the growing tech community within Nairobi.
Paul continues with mentioning how their approach is to influence policy formulation, intellectual property, data protection, linkages to venture capital and basically catalyzing growth in the ICT sector between government, the public and business.
Rick Joubert of Yonder MediaRick Joubert, from Yonder Media, “the mobile phone is the most ubiquitous consumer device in the world.” He goes on to talk about how the phone is now even more spread through South Africa than radios. There are 2x as many phones as TV sets. There are 6x more mobile phone subscribers than internet users (in South Africa).
Rick defines the Mobile Web this way:
- Tier 1: The WAP internet
- Tier 2: The mobile web application internet
- Tier 3: Web browsing on phone
**Interruption**
PS Ndemo, who I know and like, is going to give a short address. This isn’t cool, as he’s interrupting Rick Joubert mid-talk (and a very interesting one too). Case-in-point for why government needs to get out of the way more than anything else in the technology field… [Yes, I note that this is probably the American viewpoint on equality coming out].PS Ndemo is talking through how there were 3.5 million internet users in Kenya last year. Now, with the cost of laptops dropping, we now see 500 laptops sold per day (there were only 20k per year sold before).
Kenya also has the digital villages project (Pasha) with the World Bank is seeing long lines of individuals in far off places coming in to try the internet, get on Skype and figure out how to set up email and other services.
PS Ndemo, ever the gracious person, has at least apologized for the interruption and made amends to the speaker and the conference as a whole. There’s a reason I like him…
**Back to our scheduled program**
“The Apple iPhone is the number one handset on every continent in the world, except… Africa”. The Nokia 3110 and Samsung E250 are the two biggest phones on the continent. The fact of the matter is, the real money is being made in the inexpensive DVD/Nollywood areas, not in the mobile web yet. Services that play to USSD, Voice and SMS are where the real opportunities lie.
Driving forces:
- Growth in data networks and coverage
- Mobile data access charges
- Local content
- Better quality handsets shipping at the cheapest possible price
- Mobile wallets, mobile commerce, mobile banking
Business models and monetization routes:
- Commerce
- Transactions and financial institutions
- Content
- Advertising
Rick projects that the “size of the prize” in mobile advertising is approximately $8 billion per year in Africa.
Rick finishes showing a video from LynxEffect on how consumers see mobile web, the seductive side of it.
Eric Cantor of AppLab Uganda & Grameen Foundation
I wrote about AppLab and their work with MTN and Google last year. Eric wants to talk about a critical look at a critical space, the 95% of the African population that doesn’t own a smartphone.
(Get the full presentation of Eric Cantor’s slides as a PDF)
“There are more people having conferences and running too many pilots around the use of social mobile work than there is real practical applications and scaling of the products in the market.”
Technology: Be Patient
SMS is not the only way. It’s very challenging and very expensive to work with SMS. One way to adjust this focus is into voice – people like people, and want to talk with each other.Handsets need to evolve. Nokia 1100 vs Java 1680 ($20 vs $60) – we’re waiting on the $40 smartphone.
Eric reminds us that we need to get back to the Four-Ps of marketing. We can’t forget user experience, the services might be serious, but still need to be fun to use. At the AppLab they don’t believe what they hear (because everyone says “yes, this product will be great in our market”). They try to dig deeper, learned from Google, on what customers really want and see what people are really using.
Question timeI’ve asked the question for Eric Cantor about why we’re not seeing very simple data hooks built into some of the USSD and SMS applications running in Uganda. (more on this here: “Should we be building SMS or internet services for Africa?“). Eric agrees that there is a lot of upside in that space, and that they’re trying to push more towards the data channel, but until we start seeing more data-enabled handsets in ordinary people’s hands out in the villages, it’s just not a main priority yet.
Robert Alai asks what is driving advertising growth in South Africa? Is it the large companies, or smaller organizations?
Rick responds saying that it’s large companies trying to reach their customers, from banks to Coca Cola and everyone in between. Businesses build grow in this space to find solutions for that, and that’s primarily small innovative companies (like his own), small nimble startups.Agatha Gikonda of Nokia East Africa talks about the Ovi Store and the opportunities for local developers to create applications and put them on the store to make money.
Peter Arina of SafaricomWhat are we going to do to drive interent usage in Kenya? Some stats:
Mobile users are estitmated at 19.05m subscribers. Kenya population estimated at 40m with 22m being the addressable market (15yo or older).
70% of mobile data users spend less than 20ksh on a monthly basis. Industry data enabled handsets estimated at 5m or 26% of GSM users. Cost of a 3G handset is 3x higher than that of a non-data enabled handset. Computer prices are way too high compared to the disposable income of majority of Kenyans.
“The cost of devices that access the internet is the biggest barrier to entry for ordinary Kenyans.”
Cost of broadband (price) is prohibitive due to infrastructure investment.
Local content – the most popular sites accessed on the Safaricom network is Facebook and YouTube. Limited content which is highly priced, is also a barrier locally. There’s a need for high quality data enabled handsets to get good experience.
Conclusion
Mobile data users estimated to reach 10m in the next five years subject to availability of affordable devices, increase awareness, local content development and drop in data prices. Safaricom is trying to work directly with the manufacturers to get more data-enabled devices into normal Kenyan’s hands.There is a need for more local content that is relevant at affordable rates. Need for reduction in frequency costs, a creation of daily usage habits among users and a need for the government to remove VAT on modems.
Questions
@Kahenya is asking a question. Safaricom is trying to become more affordable, it’s still the most expensive network in Kenya. It’s still has no fixed rate for the mobile data network access. It doesn’t work for small and medium sized business, is Safaricom doing anything to change this?Peter Arina says they are trying to be cautious. They’re trying to focus on quality (bull$%@& as they have the worst network connectivity in Kenya). He says that they have plans to reduce the cost of data as well, but he has no details on it.
The Safaricom rep says that their main goal is to provide services to the Wananchi (the ordinary/mass Kenyan). The question remains then, why is the cost so high for all of their services?
Paul Kukubo asks when Safaricom will open up their network for value added services for developers and other companies. He’s wondering why the revenue share is so high here (currently if you partner with Safaricom, they’ll take about 60% of revenues), meanwhile elsewhere in the world, like Japan, give 70% to the developer.
Paul asks about the issue with the networks taking advantage of the developers who are out there who come to them with ideas and new products.
The Safaricom rep states that this is not the case any longer. They partner with MobilePlanet and Cellulant (as examples, but it’s a poor one because they’re established companies now). He says that at first they start off with a big chunk of the revenues, but as the product does better, then the developer will get more of the share.
Basically, we get no straight answers from Safaricom and only promises of better things in the future with no details.
Jose Henriques, Executive Head: Online Product Management, Vodacom South Africa6.65% of the African population currently uses PC internet. The top ten countries make up 85% of that.
Some more stats:
- Africa represents 15% of the world population, but only 3.9″% of the world’s PC internet usage.
- Africa’s PC Internet users have increased by 1359% from 2000 to 2009.
- The global service revenue generated from subscriptions to mobile internet access are forecasted by Informa Telecoms & Media to rise from $57 billion in 2008 to $120 billion in 2013.
- Mobile ad revenue is estimated to be at $2 billion by 2014. Total value of marketing spend on mobile to be around $6 billion.
- Mobile subscription rose from 54 million to almost 350 million between 2003 and 2008.
- On average there are 60% mobile penetration in the world. In developing countries the figure stands at 48% , which is 8x bigger than in 2000.
- Lack of fixed-line access will drive huge mobile internet usage and revenues.
- Vodacom generates 49 million ad impressions per month in South Africa (big opportunity).
(Full presentation by Jose Henriques from Vodacom South Africa)
Questions
What has been defined as a smartphone, is not what we define one as today. How would you define it?
Cheapest data enabled devices are about 2000Ksh in Kenya. Safaricom thinks that these are smartphones.Mpesa… Why is Safaricom unable to cooperate with and provide third-party access (opening their APIs) to developers in Kenya for Mpesa?
The Safaricom rep says that they are willing to do this, and that they’re hungry for people to come in with ideas and products. No specifics given on this. @TMSruge, the moderator, asks her to provide details on how they are actively trying to seek out and help grow this as there is no API or SDK.
@wanjiku says she’s heard Safaricom saying that they have a tendency to do well with big companies, but holding smaller company money for 3-4 months, hurting their cash flow.
Steve Vosloo asks what types of local content are people really willing to pay for?
The Safaricom rep is out of touch… she states that, “no one is willing to pay anything for mobile content”. This is bunk.Rick Joubert comes in to state facts on how much money there is being made in South Africa in mobile content, $540 million is the real number just in SA. It’s not whether people will pay or not, it’s whether they find value in local content.
A question was asked of Safaricom, why they don’t open up the ability for third-party service providers to bill consumers? The answer by Safaricom is that they are. (I can’t confirm this)
We have Zap, Mobile Pay, Mpesa, etc… when are we going to have an agnostic system to send/receive money? by @kahenya
MTN rep says to come to Uganda to see this working. It’s there working on the MTN system. It’s a serious issue of not having your payment system to go beyond your own network.
Mpesa is a wall gardened. Kahenya and Teddy Ruge ask when there will be a need to NOT walk around with 3 handsets to send money within each one.
Safaricom states that they can already do this within their system. They lay the blame at the regulators feet for why it hasn’t happened.
**Lunch**
Brett StClair of AdMobBrett starts by asking, “what is mobile internet?” It’s a website that is built for mobile handsets. Admob puts banner advertisement on these sites. They server 12-14 billion advertisements into this network each month. The man on the street can earn revenues start advertising today. There’s a 60% payout to publishers.
Have access to 53 countries in Africa. Monthly ads serves is 750 million in Africa alone.
African Mobile Web currently has South Africa, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and Kenya as the top 5. Data prices do have a huge effect on the advertising revenues available in Africa.
Nokia 3110c is the most pervasive phone in the market (3.8%), Samsung E250 is at 3.7% penetration. Top smartphones are the Nokia N70 at 10.8% and then Nokia 6300 at 10.3% and then the iPhone at 8.2%.
Top reasons why South Africa is working:
- 5 million fixed line internet vs 10 million mobile internet users
- Strong operator billing infrastructure
- However, mobile money is not mature yet
- Early adoption by premium traditional publishers
- consumers traditionally have had a fast adoption rate
- Due to vast competition for impressions average CPC pricing grew from $0.03 to $0.27 in a year.
Is Africa next? The rest of the world thinks it is, but we need to get the local people to understand this.
Cheapest inventory in the world is in Africa… global accesss average is $0.03, in Africa it’s at $0.01. Local contet providers will benefit as they understand the local African consumers.
Key to making this work:
- 3g network coverage
- Cheap data pricing
- GPRS enabled handset penetration
What are the opportunities in Africa?
Strong tend to follow the West and South Africa. Paid for content, reliant on operator billing. Free content, which is ad funded. The top publisher types are communities, portals and downloads. The top categories are music, religion (15%), games and brands.African traffic is made of 54% Nokia handsets, then 18% Samsung handsets. iPhone requests make up 18 million impressions in Africa.
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Spread My Wings...
» Rugby in Kenya Spread My Wings...
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MacDonald Mariga's Miss - Lessons for Kenyan football
» SportsKenya Thanks to the dithering football authorities and the usual last minute haste and Mariga missed out on what the local media had already hyped as the deal of the year. What is even more amusing is the fact that our very own PM tried gaining mileage too saying how he'd helped acquire a work permit after placing a call to the UK authorities. Laughable if you ask me...
Photo Courtesy of Inter Milan official website.
What do we learn from this ?
First we are celebrating a single player almost making it to the English Premiership League for the first time, well and good. But shouldn't we be sad that it has taken us almost 18 years to get what would have been the first player into the EPL ? Countries such as Congo (both Congo Kinshasa & Congo Brazzaville already have two players having played there even when their states are not the most stable economically). You can also check out the spread of international players currently playing in the EPL here.
Secondly if this is not a good enough wake-up call for the Kenyan football authorities then I don't know what is. Forget the fancy bid they made for the 2016 Africa Cup of Nations ( Big Joke !)Forget the Antoine Hey fiasco (Mr. PM he DID NOT IMPROVE Kenyan football). If there is a time that Kenyan young players will get inspired in playing the game it is now. If you put a little more effort and time in investing in the Kenya Premier League as SuperSport has so willingly been patient with you, then the yield will be a whole load of talent.
Third expounding on the 2nd point above, if you have good local talent it automatically means you develop a good local scene. Coming from the Africa Cup of Nations, the North Africans and some West African countries have shown us that they have what it takes to earn bragging rights, ask the Egyptians.
That's fair enough for now as we look forward to a new season 2010 !
Mariga's Boon:
It may seem lost that he didn't make it to England, but methinks he will improve dramatically working under the 'The Special One'. It may also be right given he has a chance playing in the Champions League fixtures starting soon.
Who knows in the summer his tag may improve dramatically and may find just the right suitors?
