Posts Tagged: africa

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30
Aug 10

How to design a mobile money service

A great article about the elements of the design of Safaricom’s tremendously successful M-PESA service in Kenya.

“In Kenya, sending and receiving money with a mobile phone is not an intuitive idea for many people. It is important, therefore, that communications around how the service works and how it benefits users be simple and clear. From its inception, M-PESA has been presented to the public as offering a simple service—“send money home.” This basic remittance product has become the must-have “killer” applica- tion that continues to drive service take-up. M-PESA’s marketing campaigns have worked well; most Kenyans queried know that M-PESA can be used for money transfers.”

Link: Designing Mobile Transfer Services: Lessons from M-PESA (gsmworld.com, 6.8MB PDF, see p52 of the report)

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10
Jun 08

Mobile innovation in Africa

Ken Banks writes about his experience with mobile technology in Africa.

“When it comes to mobile innovation, the gap between developed and developing countries is not much of a gap at all. Mobile innovation in the West, largely technology-lead, sits in contrast to that in the developing world where combating the geographic, economic and cultural constraints of users is considered a more sensible way to go. This explains the emergence of the torch phone, for users who live in areas with little or no regular light, or multiple phone books for users who share their phones with family members. On the heavyweight side, a plethora of financial applications have hit the streets, with Safaricom’s m-Pesa service getting by far the biggest press to date. Regularly used by hundreds of thousands of Kenyans, you often hear it described as the “Kenyan Debit Card”, allowing users to transfer money through their mobile phones to help out family and friends, or to buy and sell goods and services across the airwaves. For the tens of millions of Kenyans without bank accounts, m-Pesa represents both a revolution and a revelation. It is now being rolled out in other countries, with Afghanistan next on the list.”

Link: Africa’s grassroots mobile revolution – a traveller’s perspective (vodafone.com)

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23
Jan 08

Norms of missed calls

“This article explores the practice of “beeping” or “missed calling” between mobile phone users, or calling a number and hanging up before the mobile’s owner can pick up the call. Most beeps are requests to call back immediately, but they can also send a pre-negotiated instrumental message such as “pick me up now” or a relational sign, such as “I’m thinking of you.” The practice itself is old, with roots in landline behaviors, but it has grown tremendously, particularly in the developing world. Based on interviews with small business owners and university students in Rwanda, the article identifies three kinds of beeps (callback, pre-negotiated instrumental, and relational) and the norms governing their use. It then assesses the significance of the practice using adaptive structuration theory. In concluding, the article contrasts beeping with SMS/text messaging, discusses its implications for increasing access to telecommunications services, and suggests paths for future research.”

Link: “The Rules of Beeping: Exchanging Messages Via Intentional “Missed Calls on Mobile Phones (indiana.edu, via)