After years of sparse rain, the floodgates opened
Just past Machakos junction towards Kitui, Ukambani, Kenya April 2013 This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
Impact of mainstreaming and commodification of cyber cafe services
Around 2007, the urban cyber cafe industry began to display signs of maturing as the market saturated and the services specific to internet access underwent a process of commodification. As it came to be perceived as no different a business than setting up a corner kiosk or hot dog stand, there was a shift in […]
The role of the cyber cafe: Assisted entry ramp onto the information superhighway to use a cliche
Monica’s cyber in the small town of Maai Mahiu, a market for a primarily rural area, is now the only such facility available. There was another cyber on the other side of the main highway, she said, but it closed within its first year of operation. Internet access in this locale is available only through […]
Estimating price in unexplored and untapped markets
In addition to estimating the size and value of the Kenyan cyber cafe industry for our client, Village Telco of Cape Town, South Africa, we were tasked with finding out what would people pay for their product, the Mesh Potato. This challenge was the equivalent of walking up to someone and asking: How much would […]
Mobile phones and China: Two concurrent factors of global urbanization of rural African market towns.
Do we need to play guess the country or will you take my word for it that three of these photographs are from the Visayas islands in The Philippines and other 3, that match, are from all over Kenya. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
Exploring post-industrial platforms
This spread is the centerfold of an interesting little PDF called Fact, Forces, Fog:: Reckless guesses in a time of change by The Doblin Group of Chicago. I was first introduced to it in the Fall (Autumn) semester of 2003 when I took Larry Keeley‘s class “Design Planning” (or whatever its being called now) at […]
Why prepaid business models work so well for the rural and informal economy
We broke down the basic concept of the ‘pay as you go’ or prepaid mobile plan – in general, discounting the details of the various different strategies and pricing/time plans of different countries as a way to begin understanding what is it about this model that makes it work at the BoP. Could we somehow […]
Exploring the market forces acting on the cyber cafe industry in Kenya
This post continues on the challenges of estimating size and value of an untapped market in the developing world – in our current case, it is the cyber cafe industry in Kenya. A critical aspect of this exercise will include assessing the impact of a variety of market forces acting on the industry in the […]
The challenge of assessing the size of an emerging market opportunity
Kagio fresh produce market, Kenya, April 2013 Untapped opportunities in the developing world bring with them their own challenges for businesses seeking to invest in them. An interesting one is that of assessing the market size and value, particularly for the lower income demographic that operates primarily in the informal economy (often called the BoP […]
Reach Beyond: the CHI 25th Anniversary Conference in San Jose, May 2007
Today I realize that I had been struck dumb by the myriads of visions dancing in front of my eyes when I went up on stage to share the Closing Plenary at the CHI2007 conference back in San Jose, CA in the first week of May 2007. May 3rd, 2007 in San Jose CA Photo […]
