ICT Innovation Blog

The unexpected success story of mobile phones on the African market has gotten investors searching for more opportunities. There is a drive by IT service investors to develop more products that suit this market. Realizing that more people in most African countries are more likely to access mobile phones than computers linked to the internet, Google is launching a new strategy aimed to reach out to mobile phone users in Africa. This new strategy is called “the search and trade via SMS”.

How does this work? Users must not necessarily be in possession of sophisticated mobile phone devices (such as iphones or blackberries) with web browsers but simple require a normal cell phone that can perform the basic functions of sending and receiving text messages besides making calls. Google yesterday launched a “suite of sms services” in Africa which includes an SMS Search Function, an SMS Question & Answer (Q&A) style tip Function and an SMS Based Marketplace Function.

For the search function, a query is sent to a particular number and the results come back in the form of SMS. Searches can be narrowed by using specific keywords such as “local time,” “weather,” “news,” “maps,” “translation,” or “currency conversion.” The figure below illustrates how the search function works.

The figure above illustrates how users can request more information if they are unsatisfied with the search results. For more complicated searches an SMS tips service automatically provides results in a Q&A format.

The most interesting part of it though is the SMS based marketplace function. This function allows users to post items for sale and jobs amongst others via SMS. Other people can search for these items by texting the service with the word “BUY” preceding the search term (see figure below). Google Trader connects buyers and sellers together. The phone number of the seller is automatically included in each listing placed.

Uganda is the first African country to have this service and Google plans to spread it to other parts of Africa as time goes on. The service also functions like an application that can give users health tips and help locate nearest health centers.

This project is being greeted by many on the continent with much enthusiasm as it is regarded as an investment that is more promising than many development aid packages which often end up in wrong hands. The extent to which this concept will be successful on the African Market will very much depend on the costs of the services. I see it as a great tool that will potentially be used by students seeking current information while writing seminar papers and others in the society seeking general information. The trade function may be a little slower to catch up due to the level of distrust caused by high level scamming in many African countries.

compare:www.techcrunch.com

reference:Erick Schonfeld