Monthly Archive for July, 2009

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The shocking report on how teenagers consume media today.

Published on July 15, 2009 in random. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I have just read the shocking Morgan Stanley report on how teenagers consume media today. The report was based on a 2 week internship that 15 year old Matthew Robson did at Morgan Stanley’s London offices in their Media and Internet research Department.

The report provides what could be a new road map for the media industry in coming years as teenagers become the working class, globally. In a nutshell, the global media industry, which is already being violently transformed by digital media and changing consumer habits is going to look a lot different in a few years than it does today, even in Africa.

Here is summary of the main findings of the report from the Times Online:

The world according to Matthew Robson aged 15 and a half:

Radio With online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses

Newspapers No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV

Internet Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered. On the other hand, teenagers do not use Twitter

Music They are very reluctant to pay for it (most having never bought a CD) Teenagers from higher income families use iPods and those from lower income families use mobile phones

Directories Real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services teenagers do not require. They can get the information free on the internet

Viral/Outdoor Marketing “Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing… Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop-ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless…they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.”

Cinema Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is because of the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price. Also it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket

Mobile phones The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, because of their long list of features, built-in Walkman capacity and value

The full report can be downloaded here>

Tanzania’s TCRA enforces mobile SIM card user registration.

Published on July 14, 2009 in random. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has taken an unprecedented step in East Africa by requiring Tanzanian mobile subscribers to register their personal details for their mobile phone SIM cards. This action was reported in this week’s edition of the East African Newspaper and clearly may lead to more and more countries in the region following suit. According to the TCRA, the move is being done so as to “curb misuse and keep track of owners.”

As a result, all buyers of new SIM cards will now be required to present their identification as they purchase them. The process of mobile SIM card registration starts in July 2009 and will run for a period of 6 months by which time TCRA will know who the owners of most if not all SIM cards are in Tanzania. If one does not register their SIM card in time then their phone number(s) will be deleted after notification.

There is something worrying about this action from the TCRA since it may give the Tanzanian Government an almost uncanny ability to monitor all Tanzanians, wherever they may be, from their telephone conversations, text messages, internet activities and their locations, at any given time. This could have both good and bad consequences but it is not uncommon in Africa as countries such as Ethiopia have done the same in the past. Whatever the case, it looks like Big Brother will be looking over the shoulders of Tanzania’s 10+ million mobile subscribers by year’s end.

President Barack Obama’s speech on Africa in Ghana.

Published on July 11, 2009 in Heroes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I have just been watching the much anticipated speech by President Barack Obama in Accra, Ghana this afternoon to the Ghanaian Parliament on his first official trip to Africa as President of the United States of America. Much of what President Obama had to say we already know as African’s. He has delivered a speech that encapsulates the negative and positive aspects that we know about Africa, ranging from corruption to peaceful elections, from war to peace, from tribalism to entrepreneurship.

In a nutshell, President Obama is well appraised on what is going on throughout the African continent as his speech clearly demonstrates. He has articulated many issues that are familiar but what is different is the actions he proposes that deviate from his predecessors. This is what Africa has been waiting for from the leader of the free world – a new direction and attitude from the US on Africa.

In his speech, President Obama has made a firm commitment to Africa, provided that we ourselves start to change our ways and aspire for more. That we become committed to change in Africa that will yield positive outcomes. If President Obama’s speech is not a strong enough call to action for ALL Africans, then who will stir us out of our decades long reverie of pain and hurt.

He is asking us, as Africans, to take responsibility for our destinies as individuals and communities. He is asking Africans to finally do the right thing and live up to their full potential and greatness. Indeed, is such a thing possible? Can we do the right thing as he has asked? I certainly hope so! YES WE CAN fellow Africans! Its time for new beginnings and time for a new Africa!

Are social networks becoming Kenya’s preferred online destinations?

Published on July 11, 2009 in internet marketing. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

I had an interesting meeting with a prospective client representative the other day. There I was with a colleague talking about the merits of our firm providing internet marketing services to their bank when he interjected with an anecdote as to why the internet has become so vital to the future of his financial services organization.

He explained that a couple of years ago, he had made a business trip to the US where he acquired a state of the art laptop. The said laptop stayed in its box, unopened and unused, for practically a year by himself, his wife or his daughter. However, he had to get the laptop connected to the Internet for his wife and his daughter so that they could “get on that web site they call Facebook where all their friends and family go”.

Interesting, isn’t it? That a computer can remain unused for a year until a family needs to connect to Facebook since that is where everyone they know goes to spend their time online for personal and professional networking. Its not email or web browsing in general that led them to get online, it was the need to connect and re-connect with friends, family and colleagues, past and present, in and beyond Kenya, on Facebook.

Its no wonder that Facebook and other social networks are some of the most highly trafficked web sites in Kenya. As of June 2009, according to web ranking service Alexa, the most popular social networks in Kenya by overall web traffic:

4. Facebook.com
7. YouTube.com
8. Blogger.com
9. Wikipedia.org
14. Twitter.com
15. Tagged.com
18. WordPress.com
31. Hi5.com
32. Haiya.co.ke
48. MySpace.com

Based on these statistics, it goes to show the increasing importance of social networks for a variety of reasons in Kenya. One of these reasons could be that social networks act as platforms for publishing and distributing internet content that hereto had been a cumbersome, costly and highly proprietary process. At the same time, social networks in Kenya have become key channels for marketing services locally, as well as communicating directly with a broad range of parties. Lastly, social networks give us a voice that can be heard, wide and loud, on a broad range of Kenyan issues and topics, enabling us to trigger and engage in online conversations. In a nutshell, social networks are fast becoming Kenya’s preferred online destinations for these reasons.

Kenyan Internet portal race is already out of the blocks.

Published on July 9, 2009 in random. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Its becoming increasingly apparent that the soon to be operational high speed undersea data cables that will connect Kenya to the rest of the world are fueling the emergence of local Internet portals. These developments are an obvious move to capitalize on the fact that Kenya currently has very limited content online and inasmuch as we will soon have warp speed internet speeds, there is a gaping hole to be plugged where local content is concerned.

The mushrooming of local Kenyan Internet portals will no doubt favor the first movers in this space, giving them an advantage of sorts. However, what I have learnt in over 10 years of building and managing web sites is that even if a web site is poorly developed, for as long as it has the required information, it will have traffic. In this respect, I may not have much to get excited about in terms of design and development of the Kenyan Internet portals but they seem to have content that matters. Here is the list of Kenyan internet portals that I found to be noteworthy:

Home.co.ke

Home.co.ke is an initiative of AccessKenya, one of Kenya’s leading Internet Service Providers. Home.co.ke is essentially an online magazine covering a broad range of topics and themes. It also has an online business directory and an e-marketplace. It appears that AccessKenya is investing significant resources in terms of content generation by what appears to be a full squad of editorial contributors. It seems that home.co.ke already has a substantive amount of advertising on it in the form of display ads, meaning that the site is probably already being monetized. From a first mover perspective, home.co.ke seems like a winner if they can capitalize on the fact that they are first out of the blocks.

Butterfly.co.ke

Butterfly.co.ke is a portal from Kenya Data Networks (KDN). The portal in question is less of a magazine-like approach as is home.co.ke and more of a pure archetypal internet portal. It has various features such as online classifieds, yellow pages, personals, jobs, videos, blogs and various e-marketplaces for cars and real estate. The overall presentation of the web site doesn’t really “grab” you but it does have all of the functionality you would expect from a Internet portal. Butterfly.co.ke has limited advertising at this juncture so chances are its not making as much money (yet) as home.co.ke may be doing.

Nairobist.com

Nairobist.com is an initiative of Nairobist Media. The portal has a classifieds section, stock market information, lifestyle content and a professional networking section. Nairobist.com, as its name suggests is largely focussed on Nairobi-specific content and information including jobs, classifieds, directory, city guide, photo sharing, etc. It has a fairly clean and simple design that is easy on the eye. Nairobist.com also has a very popular e-newsletter that makes its rounds every month to Kenyans at home and in the Diaspora. In terms of advertising, Nairobist.com does not seem to have much at this time but this can be expected to change in time.

Kenyabuzz.com

Kenyabuzz.com is another portal that features a magazine-like format similar to home.co.ke. The site has the advantage of being a content contributor to the Business Daily Newspaper with a weekly entertainment guide. At the same time, Kenyabuzz.com also has a fairly popular e-newsletter that is circulated on a weekly basis. The site’s content features classifieds, directory, guides, events, etc. They also seem to have an in-house editorial team like home.co.ke and as such are generating a substantive amount of original content for the portal. Off all the portals reviewed, Kenyabuzz.com probably has the most pleasant and well-balanced design.

 

Kenya Airways “gets” social media.

Published on July 8, 2009 in random. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’m impressed. I am really really impressed! Kenya Airways clearly gets social media! As one of Kenya’s biggest and global brands, Kenya Airways or “KQ” as they are popularly known are leveraging social media as part of their marketing strategies.
KQ has a Twitter profile at http://www.twitter.com/kenyaairways, a Youtube profile at http://www.youtube.com/user/kqmsafiri and a Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kenya-Airways/47572703799.

This is quite encouraging to see since many BIG Kenyan brands tend to be very wary of social media as its quite informal, demands responsiveness and means exposing a brand to negative attacks when things aren’t going so well. Hopefully, KQ is just the first of many of our large and small Kenyan brands that will jump into social media game.

One thing that KQ need to do though is ensure that their social media profiles are linked up to their main web site at http://www.kenya-airways.com in a very prominent way. Currently, there is no away of telling from their homepage that they actually have active social media profiles. Nevertheless, Kudos to KQ!

What does Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of MTN mean for Africa?

Published on July 6, 2009 in random. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Bharti Airtel is India’s largest mobile services company with over 62 million subscribers. MTN, the South African-based mobile group is Africa’s largest mobile network with over 68 subscribers in 21 countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. Bharti Airtel is currently considering a large stake in MTN to create what will become  one of the world’s largest mobile companies in Asia, Africa and Middle East. However, what concerns me is what this mega deal will mean for Africa, and especially MTN’s competition in Africa, should it go through.

Bharti Airtel’s story is an interesting one as it gives you an idea of what makes them India’s largest and most successful mobile network. Bharti Airtel was the first mobile network in India to build a national network that covered most of the country. It is also largely credited with pioneering an emerging markets model for mobile services by serving both high-end and low-end customers, country-wide. Its network coverage is over 80% of India and its currently growing its business by focussing on rural villages and towns, where they already have 1400,000 covered.

In a nutshell, Bharti Airtel has mastered the Indian marketplace and has adapted when it had to, learning and evolving as it grew. Bharti Airtel created a model approach to becoming a successful in a market that has both extremes of wealth and poverty, in a very diverse market environment. It’s my guess that by Bharti Airtel teaming up with MTN, Africa will see some of the same innovative strategies localized, and rolled out. This could lead to some big (positive) changes for the customer which will ultimately only increase MTN’s success in Africa. I hope the competition are ready.

Kampala connected to Mombasa via 1,500 km fibre optic backbone.

Published on July 6, 2009 in random. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Just read that Kampala City in Uganda is now connected to Mombasa in Kenya via a 1,500 kilometre fibre optic backbone. The fibre has been laid by Alltech Stream East Africa, the parent company of Kenya Data Networks (KDN). The fibre will now be extended to Kigali in Rwanda over the coming months to essentially create an East African Fibre backbone that will connect to the soon to be operational high speed undersea cables in Mombasa.

The cables in Mombasa will begin operations later this month with SEACOM and TEAMS in a couple of months. The implication of the fibre backbone connecting all of East Africa’s major cities is that telecommunication and data costs could drop to as low as 10% of the current satellite-based communications. This is going to make East African regional soci-economic integration significantly more cost-effective and efficient. These are truly interesting times for the region!

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax filing going online.

Published on July 6, 2009 in random. 17 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is expected to “fully” launch its Integrated Tax Management System (ITMS) any day now which will mean that all taxes will be filled online instead of manually going forward. This is expected to create a whole new level of efficiency and convenience for individual and business tax payers in Kenya. No more long lines or manual paperwork will be required when the ITMS goes becomes fully operational.

The first phase of the project for the filing of Value Added Tax (VAT) is already operational with other taxes expected to go online very soon. This is going to be such a boon for so many Kenyans and Kenyan businesses in terms of E-Government services. Going forward, lets see more and more Government services start going online like Lands and Immigration. For the full story, go to the Daily Nation here>

Is Edi Gathegi Kenya’s first Hollywood Movie Star?

Published on July 4, 2009 in Heroes. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I just found out that Kenya has a bonafide movie star in Hollywood, and his name is not Barack Obama! No, Edi Gathegi is the real deal. He has been a recurrent character on the popular TV show HOUSE as Dr. Jeffrey Cole and last year he acted in a small role in the hugely popular movie “Twilight” as Laurent, a vampire. Edi was born in Nairobi, Kenya but grew up in the US and is also an American citizen.

Edi is reprising his role as Laurent in the upcoming “Twilight Saga: New Moon”, a follow-up to last year’s Twilight which will premiere later this year. In the second Twilight movie, Edi has a larger role than he did in the first one. The Twilight series of books have been a massive success worldwide and are being adapted for the big screen in the same way as the fantasy-based Harry Potter books. For more details on Edi, you can read his full profile on Wikipedia here>