Agreed with you Kenyanlyrics. Their execs are recycled overpaid "marketing" fellows. I once asked one of them why they were using a billboard and he told me "for visibility". Therein lies the problem.
Visibility to whom?
Poor people walking to work and seeing a billboard can see you, but are they your customers?
That's also the problem with this mobile thingi. So what if 1million mobile users can access my products or services. If they can't afford it, I'm talking to the wrong people.
I'm not a believer in mobile apps, nor websites nor lack of websites.
I'm a believer that these are just tools to complement business.
If my customers will buy my shoe through a mobile app, then I will create it. But I will not create a mobile app simply because there are a lot of shoeless Kenyans who will find it easy to buy the shoe. What if they can't afford the shoe?
Technology is not the solution to problems. It is a means to reduce work load of a solution.
If I have a shop, I must first make a profit from that shop. So I know that if I buy x and sell at y I make a profit.
Only then will I scale up. Scale up may mean I open another shop, open a branch in Uganda, create a website so more people can see my product and even create an app.
But the business must come first. That is why many tech firms fail. They have no business from day 1 but grand solutions to problems that don't exist. Someone say m-farm, m-kesho, m-xxxx, m-nobusiness idea.
Now add the iHub NGO mentality and you have a recipe for disaster. I'm hundred percent sure that the first online venture to take off in Kenya will be done by a mama mboga.
Jose: If I make it through this thug life, I'll see you one day. The Lord is the only way to stop the hurt.