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
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 or bottom of the pyramid). This snippet […]
iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – Part two
iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – March 2010 Jakarta
Exhibits of projects completed displayed at the Frontiers seminar on March 3rd in Jakarta, Indonesia. Click on photos to see details. continued in next post.
Synthesis of the Prepaid Economy Project
The impetus for the Prepaid Economy project came from field observations during other projects which focused on the design and development of products and services for those at the BoP. It was noted that the majority of the BoP lived on irregular incomes derived from a variety of sources, while few business models or payment […]
Observations: Rural BoP and the cash economy
Investment or Independence? Photo Credit: Goverdhan Meena Across the board, the particular characteristic that most stood out during my conversations with the rural populace in India and The Philippines, as well as prior experiences elsewhere, was their undeniable pride in their degree of self reliance, and thus, their level of independence from […]
Update on final report of project and research paper
The final report for the iBoP Asia Project will be approximately ten pages long (not including appendices) and completed by the end of the month. I'll only put that up online once they have approved the final submission. In other news, the research findings from the field form the core of an abstract that has […]
Increasing the customer’s span of control seems to imply success
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, now in the […]
Project 1: Payment strategies for irregular incomes at the BoP
What insights can we derive from observing and understanding how those at the BoP currently manage their household budgets to inspire new transaction models or pricing strategies for businesses wishing to serve the poor more effectively, yet profitably? The focus of our exploratory and user research in the field will be to understand the challenge […]
The iBoP Asia Project Small Grants program
The Ateneo School of Government, with the International Development Research Centre, is implementing a project entitled Science and Technology Innovations for the Base of the Pyramid in Southeast Asia. By building partnerships with and among research councils, government agencies, business institutions, and other relevant organizations in the region, the Project aims to create and promote […]
