Comments on: Vipera aims mobile SocNet at developing world

By: Alberto Nardelli

Alberto Nardelli — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:53:08 +0000

Sure there are issues, but there are two fundamental facts:

1) mobile networks in many parts of Africa (and in other developing areas of the world) are far more used (and cheaper to further develop) to access the web and “traditional internet channels”: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_06/index.html

2) there is great investment in building mobile phones and more broadely mobile services applicable within developing markets, including by Motorola.

Vipera, may not be the perfect solution, but the point that a mobile social network in developing countries is a winning solution (business-wise and social impact-wise) solidly stands.

By: Yinka

Yinka — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:19:17 +0000

Good to know Mike.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:37:03 +0000

Yinka – Hey man, chill out. I was merely trying to make the point that to think of Facebook as the be-all-and-end-all of social networking is wrong, so we agree. I was also making the point that iPhone are way too expensive, so mobile social networks in developing countries will have to work on many different kinds of handsets.

As for your crack about me not visiting Africa – as it happens half my family is African and I’ve been visiting there since 1970. OK with you?

By: Yinka

Yinka — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:12:19 +0000

———————————————
”We are talking about places where to say “Facebook” would make people think of a book with faces in it, not a social network.”
———————————————-

This sentence makes no sense at all. Several millions of people here in Europe havent heard of ‘Facebook’ as well.

Connectivity problems aside, millions of people in Africa are heavily into social networking.

————————————–
”I’d love to think these guys could one day get their hands on an iPhone and a Flickr account but until then apps like Vipera are going to be their link to this brave new world”
————————————–
Mike, I doubt if you’ve ever visited Africa. if you have, you wouldnt be writing ‘jokes’ like this.

By: Marcin Grodzicki

Marcin Grodzicki — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:04:10 +0000

It’s true that mobile market is a lot more developed in developing countries than internet, but you have to remember that those are mostly dated phones with little to no web capability. The java app can be some way of reaching them, but not that many of those phones are even java capable, much less having a color high-res screen. The other stopper it the GPRS cost in those countries – typically it’s the last service that sees price drops in gsm world.

By: james

james — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:07:39 +0000

They would be better off offering their service over mobile web rather than a java download if they are aiming to target developing markets. People like mygamma, texomobile are already in this space. The scale of mobile traffic from india, SA, indonesia etc is massive, the probem is that CPMs are low although you can monetise it with admob to some extent.