I guess companies like verisign and other verification companies abroad helped to build confidence around usage of internet to buy goods. However, please note that western markets are mainly trust based hence people can trust ebay and other e commerce sites of similar nature. So can someone start a verification business in kenya? or is there one? Also what are CCK/Central bank regulations around this matter? On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 4:45 PM, Albert Mucunguzi <ed@pctechmagazine.com>wrote:
John,
I think this is a very interesting discussion. I am from Uganda, so I guess I can only give a Ugandan perspective... I don't believe we have the "critical mass" of people online anywhere in Africa, save for South Africa may be.
If you compare the ratio of internet users to the total population, you realise there is a really big problem. Worse still, most of our people use internet "just to check mail". If you talk to Internet cafés in Uganda, the largest number of their customers pay UGX 500 (which is the charge for 20minutes on average). And visit mainly one website: yahoo.com.
Of course that is changing with the growth of Facebook.
But the whole point is, people greatly relate internet to mail. So even while the payment methods have come, and number of internet users grown, we're still miles away.
The other important point I must not leave out is that people do not trust the internet. There are lots of crooks online, so people fear being victims of cyber crime.
Over to you! Albert Mucunguzi PC Tech Magazine www.albertmucunguzi.com www.pctechmagazine.com
*From:* John Maina <mwasjunior@gmail.com> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 17, 2010 4:30 PM *To:* Skunkworks forum <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> *Subject:* [Skunkworks] E-commerce in Kenya
I used to hypothesis that the reason we don't have a vibrant e-commerce infrastructure in Kenya was the lack of payment solutions and lack of "critical mass" of people online..These two problems have been solved yet we still have nothing on the ground. So my question to y'all experts is what is hindering e-commerce in Kenya?
John
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