Tag Archive for 'report'

The Kenya Digital Study Report.

Published on March 5, 2010 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Earlier today the Kenya ICT Board and TNS Research International launched the Kenya Digital Study Report. The report details how Kenyans ‘consume’ the internet and is part of a global series of studies funded by TNS Research International which explore how digital services are changing the lives and demands of consumers. Ultimately, the report will lead to new ways of providing services and marketing in Kenya via the Internet and other digital channels.

The report was based on 1,669 responses that we’re conducted online between the months of December 2009 and February 2010. The bulk of the responses came from Nairobi at 77% and 5% from rural Kenya. This means that the responses are heavily skewed to what the Nairobi internet user would do online which may not be the case in other cities and towns in Kenya. However, its is a good start in getting know what Kenyans do on the Internet and what their thoughts are about the Internet. Some of the key finings from the report which will be published soon and in full on the Kenya ICT Board web site are as follows:

  • In the responses received, Kenya ranked higher than many countries on a scale of one to ten in terms of the importance that users attached to the Internet at an average score of eight.
  • 56% access the Internet primarily in the workplace whilst at 58% use their mobile phones as their secondary form of Internet access.
  • 62% of users go online more than 5 times a day and over 65% spend more than one hour online each time they connect to the Internet.  However, 77% want to spend more time online than they currently do.
  • 43% spend an average of Kes. 101.00 to Kes. 500.00 for Internet access. However, 42% said that the cost of Internet access is too high and 40% said that slow Internet speeds are a problem whilst 29% felt that lack of enough time was a major factor to their being online more frequently.
  • The bulk of activity online for users is for business, work and job searches at 82%. However, 63% of time spent online is for academic and education-related content and 51% of time is spent on leisure related activities.
  • 57% of Internet users went online primary to access knowledge and information whilst 50% we’re online for communications and social networking purposes.
  • 100% of users use email and 95% use search engines. 91% went online to look for news and 89% did so for online chats and communications.
  • 85% of Kenyan Internet users go online for social networking and in the same context 37% of them do so to stay in touch with people they normally wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with. 96% of users on social networks are members of Facebook. 26% of those users who are on social networks have more than 250 contacts on their preferred social network. 56% of Kenyans on social networks joined a brand fan page.
  • 78% researched a product or service online whilst 51% not only researched but also bought a product directly online. When doing online research, 81% started off using a search engine whilst 63% did so to know more about a product online. 88% would like to buy products and services online and pay using mobile money. 23% felt that the cost of delivering products and services to Kenya that we’re purchased online was high.
  • 51% would like to use the Internet to pay for bills and 39% would like to access Internet banking if it was available to them. 91% had seen online ads and 44% believed a product or service review if it had been reviewed by someone who had actually used it. In terms of downloading content from the Internet, 35% wanted to download eBooks whilst 19% wanted academic papers, 13% music and 12% movies and videos.
  • When looking for products and services online 88% looked for detailed specifications, 72% compared prices so as to get the best offer and 63% did comparisons between different products. 27% said that the major deterrent to Internet banking for them was the risk of fraud.
  • 89% felt that there are too few Kenyan web sites whilst 71% visited largely foreign web sites. Only 29% of time online was spent on Kenyan web sites. In terms of local web sites, 31% of would like to see educational web sites, 17% business web sites and 16% educational web sites.
  • The most popular Government of Kenya web is the Kenya Revenue Authority at 26% followed the Public Service Commission at 11% and the Kenya National Examination Council at 7%. 88% have visited a Government of Kenya web site and 27% found them to be very useful. 69% used Government of Kenya web sites for status updates and applications whilst 65% used them for income tax returns and 56% for legal information and provisions.
  • 32% that the Government of Kenya needed to increase Internet connectivity in rural parts of the country whilst 27% felt that more Government services needed to be digitized. 21% felt that the Government needed to regulate the cost of Internet access 15% thought that the Government should provide education on how to better use the Internet and its benefits.

Synovate’s research on Internet usage in Kenya.

Published on February 12, 2010 in Uncategorized. 10 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

For anyone who follows this blog, you will know that I am passionate about technology and more specifically trends in Internet and mobile marketing in Kenya and the African continent. Therefore, it came as something of a pleasant surprise a couple of days back when I read an article in the Business Daily based on research findings done by Synovate Kenya (formerly known as the Steadman Group). Synovate’s research aimed to establish Internet usage trends in Kenya. The outcome, the “Digital Drive” report which is probably the first of its kind in Kenya identified the following key trends:

  • Kenya now has over 2 million registered users on Facebook.
  • Email is being discarded in favour of social networks like Facebook and Twitter by new Internet users in Kenya. One quarter of Kenyans who are online do not have email addresses.
  • 79% of Kenya’s Internet users are members of Facebook.
  • Daily and weekly internet usage in Kenya have both doubled in the last two years whereas monthly usage grew by over 80% in the same period.
  • Kenyan Internet users spend approximately 70 minutes online during each visit. This utilization is comparable to the average amount of time spent on television.

The findings confirm what I have been expecting for sometime now. With over 4 million internet users in Kenya, as well as 18 million mobile subscribers, we are about to enter an era of digital marketing like never before. The fact that consumers are spending so much time online and that half of the internet users get online via their mobile phone will lead to a whole new chapter in marketing in Kenya. Media spending WILL change. Brands will DEMAND a better Return On Investment (ROI). Advertisers who do not evolve to ride the digital wave will be rendered IRRELEVANT. Obviously, its not (yet) all doom and gloom. It won’t happen overnight but the writing is undeniably on the wall – “its time to get digital marketing MOJO”. Meanwhile, I can’t wait to get my hands on the complete Synovate Digital Drive Report for Kenya and do a more detailed summary here.

Business Daily report on Mobile Phones shifting Web Development in Kenya.

Published on December 17, 2009 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The Business Daily today did a report on how the ever growing mobile market in Kenya is now affecting how corporate web sites are being built by web developers and digital agencies. Basically, more and more Kenyan organizations want to ensure that their web sites can be easily accessed on the mobile web which is growing at a massive rate. I was interviewed for the report on behalf of Dotsavvy. You can read the full report here>

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>

Small is beautiful when it comes to the Internet in Kenya.

Published on July 4, 2009 in random. 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

I never thought I could say this but I am now convinced that the smaller an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Telco is in Kenya, the more likely their internet service is going to actually be better. I have used them all, the big name ISP and Telco brands and more often then not, they seem to fall short even when they claim to offer broadband internet access.

I recently got hooked up at home to a small ISP that is only operational in Nairobi and its environs. They gave me a “free” wifi router that means I can connect multiple computers at the same time to the internet. They also are charging a reasonable monthly flat rate of approximately Kes. 4,000.00, value added tax (VAT) included for “unlimited” internet access.

The service, so far, is nothing short of amazing. The company in question is a little rough on the edges in terms of personnel and customer service but I am streaming (unbuffered) video and downloading large files at a (sustained) average rate of 25 KB per second and it occasionally peaks at 40 KB per second! Its fast and reliable – at least a lot faster than many other big name ISPs and Telcos I have used over the years.

I think its time that Internet consumers in Kenya have an authoritative monthly report that rates ISPs and Telcos on their overall performance – from bandwidth to customer service, and anything else in between. I reckon most consumers and businesses would rather have a reliable and fast internet connection over lots of customer service when it just isn’t working right! At the end of the day, even if we keep talking about the promise of high speed fibre cables going live, we just want a decent internet connection.