I wrote the article, so will just respond to a couple items here. If you read it you'll note that most of what you said I agree with.
I'll start by saying that I wish I had the time to work on a solution for this. There is a lot of money to be made in Africa, as products like Mpesa show us. I'm currently up to my eyeballs at Ushahidi (www.ushahidi.com), the iHub (www.ihub.co.ke) and AfriGadget (www.afrigadget.com).
You'll note that I was specifically saying that it does not appear to make business sense for some of these web organizations to pay attention to Africa. There is lower hanging fruit elsewhere, so why should they?
Most shouldn't. Probably. However, it's interesting to note who is paying attention and who is putting money into figuring out how to monetize the web and mobile space in Africa. A couple:
Google - Google Kenya was the first independent office (sales, engineering and product development) that they had in the world.
Facebook - I didn't see this coming at all, but they were the first to zero-rate their site.
Nokia - Nokia runs a couple research labs on the continent and spends a good amount of resources figuring out customer needs.
Though there are startling opportunities, and the chance to make real (big) money in Africa, it isn't where you want to put your money first to turn a quick buck. It's where things will be happening in the future, and that's why those with the deeper pockets are taking advantage of.
Outsiders need deep pockets and a long-term strategy when working here. This is why the space is ripe for local entrepreneurs to move and make headway in users and market share while there is still a gap.
I'll start by saying that I wish I had the time to work on a solution for this. There is a lot of money to be made in Africa, as products like Mpesa show us. I'm currently up to my eyeballs at Ushahidi (www.ushahidi.com), the iHub (www.ihub.co.ke) and AfriGadget (www.afrigadget.com).
You'll note that I was specifically saying that it does not appear to make business sense for some of these web organizations to pay attention to Africa. There is lower hanging fruit elsewhere, so why should they?
Most shouldn't. Probably. However, it's interesting to note who is paying attention and who is putting money into figuring out how to monetize the web and mobile space in Africa. A couple:
Google - Google Kenya was the first independent office (sales, engineering and product development) that they had in the world.
Facebook - I didn't see this coming at all, but they were the first to zero-rate their site.
Nokia - Nokia runs a couple research labs on the continent and spends a good amount of resources figuring out customer needs.
Though there are startling opportunities, and the chance to make real (big) money in Africa, it isn't where you want to put your money first to turn a quick buck. It's where things will be happening in the future, and that's why those with the deeper pockets are taking advantage of.
Outsiders need deep pockets and a long-term strategy when working here. This is why the space is ripe for local entrepreneurs to move and make headway in users and market share while there is still a gap.