Despite teething problems, mobile Web is taking Africa by storm and is certainly the next stage of mobile technology evolution. Zachary Ochieng and Alex Owiti of CIO report.
The advent of mobile Web–the web browser-based access to the World Wide Web using a mobile device connected to a wireless network—has completely changed the way people do business. Notably, advertisers are increasingly using the mobile Web as platform to reach consumers. As at 2007, the total value of advertising on mobile was $2.2 billion. A recent study by the Online Publishers Association reports that about one in ten mobile Web users said they have made a purchase based on a mobile Web ad. While 23 percent said they have visited a Web site, 13 percent said they have requested more information about a product or service and 11 percent said they have gone to a store to check out a product. continue reading »
iPay is an easy-to-use mobile money transaction processing system that incorporates the popular M-Pesa and Zap modes of money transfer.They have packaged these two popular money transfer systems into an online transaction processing system that will allow you to receive payments off your website and thus further extend the reach of your brand’s products and services within the East African Region and beyond. continue reading »
Feb12
Sent a request to Kai for an interview and demo. So keep it locked, hopefully next week we delve inot the guts of this Mobipay baby.
Feb9
Good ideas are a dime a dozen, or so the saying goes. But now a single good idea could be worth a million dollars (USD). Nokia has announced a million dollar venture challenge to encourage innovators to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growth economies. The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s global Calling All Innovators competition announced on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Announcing the Growth Economy Venture Challenge at the conclusion of his keynote at CES, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo called on innovators to do good by bringing mobile solutions to parts of the world that can benefit most. At the same time he explained that mobile solutions can be quite profitable, but not exploitive, leading to financial “win-win” scenarios for both innovators and consumers.
“We’ve seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities”, Kallasvuo said. “We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world.” continue reading »
Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi’s roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence & peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web & mobile phone. This initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, & was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world.
Since then it has grown from an ad hoc group of volunteers to a focused organization. The team is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights work to software development. They have also built a strong team of volunteer developers in primarily in Africa, but also Europe & the U.S.
Now Team Ushahidi gives back to the local dev community in Kenya where it all began by establishing the iHub, which is being billed as Nairobi’s Innovation Hub for the technology community. And it couldn’t come at a better time as the government through the ICT Board is yet to embark on its own tech facility which will be based in Athi river…though I overheard that they may be eyeing the Sameer ICT Park development along Mombasa road to Fastrack their initiative.
The iHub is an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area code 254. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part investor and VC hub and part incubator.
There have been discussions on the need for a physical nexus for the tech community in Kenya for a couple years, so it’s great to finally be so close to uncorking the bottles and celebrating a big step forward continue reading »
As the recent earthquake in Haiti continues to claim casualties, the outpouring of relief funded by contributions made from the mobile phone comes into the spotlight. As of the 18th of January 2010, the Red Cross and other relief organizations managed to raised more than $20 million (Ksh 1.5 billion) through text message donations, which is about 10 percent of the $210 million (Ksh 15 billion)total raised.
The user experience was simple with people sending the word “HAITI” to the number 90999. This text had a charge of USD 10 (Ksh750) and was added to a users phone bill. Am guessing here that most guys are on postpaid lines in the US. Locally i have not seen an implementation of a service on the Ksh 100 billing band and above.
Of interest is that it seemed like most people were engaging this new medium of fund-raising for the first time.Mobile Accord who run the mGive initiative for the Red Cross say that this is the biggest response they have seen since 2008when they began offering their services.
Closer home, while the numbers may not match and while the causes don’t get Michelle Obama type support to rally them, the numbers are non the less impressive…on a local scale. continue reading »
All Amber (www.allamber.co.uk), a UK based conference company is leading an initiative focusing on the development of the Mobile Web in Africa by organizing a series of conferences on the topic. The conferences seek to bring together all of the leading stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem to learn, network and share experiences with the aim that the potential of the mobile internet and mobile applications can be truly harnessed.
All Amber events are innovative and progressive in their nature and utilize the very best venues, with finely tuned agendas and an interactive round-table format which sets them apart from the traditional rows of seats style and contributes to all the attendees enjoying a fantastic ‘on-the-day’ experience and significantly improved outputs and networking.
All Amber’s latest event is Mobile Web East Africa (www.mobileeastafrica.com) which is taking place in Nairobi, Kenya on 3rd & 4th February 2010, is generating a large amount of interest in the region, has already attracted a host of the leading individuals and organizations from around the continent to participate and is being officially hosted by the Kenya ICT Board
African Pixel whose founder Bwana Wilfred Mworia is a common face in the Kenyan tech scene has just hit the AppStore…Iphone App store for that matter (there are so many stores popping up all over) with iScribe which brings old school journalism to the new age of mobility and the internet. Making it simple to capture life’s moments in a fun way and on the move. You don’t have to wait to get back home to record the experience. You can capture it as it happens – in text, voice, images and video!
Get all aspects of your experience as it happens! continue reading »
If you can send a text message of 160 characters then why not send a message with 1,000 characters? This was the question Mr. Mbugua Njihia and his CTO, Mr.Idd Salim sought to answer in late 2008.
Business Daily spoke with Mr. Mbugua Njihia – Chief Executive Officer, Symbiotic Media at their Kilimani offices on the introduction of East Africa’s first mobile social network, Sembuse, which was launched in July this year.
continue reading »
