For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you) After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge. Kudos Safaricom, You Rock! Kiania
i think it's a good initiative, but i'm wondering why they had to go all the way to South Africa. Surely the likes of Mobile Planet / Symbiotic etc are more than capable of delivering. On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
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I think Symbiotic already did something similar, with Sembuse... On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com> wrote:
i think it's a good initiative, but i'm wondering why they had to go all the way to South Africa. Surely the likes of Mobile Planet / Symbiotic etc are more than capable of delivering.
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
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Hi @David, I beg to differ. :-) This is another way for Safaricom to close a business avenue on its network and again come out as being dominant. Basically it has shut out any competition on the chat IM via data services from any third parties. SILLY HUMOR = Let me know as soon as their most innovative and dominant ways get to every kenyans backyard , i.e Safaricom Pharmacies, Safaricom Web Design and Hosting, Safaricom Software Developers, Safaricom Cement Company, Safaricom Farms and Equipment ( they already have the colours green ) just to suggest a few. What Safaricom is doing is going to affect many kenyans ( whether positivley or negatively ) yet it frequently cannot sustain services. As soon as time becomes available, am going to do some research into the Failures and Flaws of Mpesa, how it has affected the confidence of Kenyans in such systems yet we should be the torch bearers of our own innovations and standards. I hear the Mpesa Platform was down for almost 48-72 hours last month? Unacceptable especially for a service that affects millions of kenyans. So what will Kenyan Devs have to say about this new development? You have just been AXED in your development work, poolay. My twisted views, advanced apology to anyone who maybe offended or if this post seems out of place. :-) Rgds. On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
@Aki Your love-hate relationship with the Queen-Bee is particularly interesting :). -- With Regards, Phares Kariuki | T: +254 734 810 802 | E: pkariuki@gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares |
Just to put in a word, I think Safaricom is great - at showing us we are not. David, nothing personal but I think you should try hussle the road we have for the last 7 years trying to get 1 product running with safaricom. they are too big to listen to a guy with an idea. they look for the BIG people yet there is no one big because you need a platform to be big. They are spending time and money publisizing facebook, why cant they even create their own localized social network like the Grid in sa? David. On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
@Aki Your love-hate relationship with the Queen-Bee is particularly interesting :).
-- With Regards,
Phares Kariuki
| T: +254 734 810 802 | E: pkariuki@gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares |
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@Phares, sorry I missed your email. Queen Bee Love-Hate relationship. I love what positive things they do like the recent long term development of the Apps store and University where kenyans devs and companies will not need to get expensive licenses to partner with them on apps dev. A big development for the local scene but then they make a U turn and poke the same development with their own indirect lock down like the Mixit app. Thus the hate relationship. Something safcom needs to understand is that tech, coders etc are not your average joe who might be doing things like editing ring tone files or even editing pixels of some silly wallpaper. What's wrong at this picture. Someone who controls 80% of the market is looking at pushing those numbers higher? If they really wanted to grow, I would be looking at growing regionally. Taking the battle to other operators outside kenya and earning huge foreign exchange for this country and increasing profitablity value. Why not take this direction? I'll give it a rest. Nice weekend to all. :-) On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
@Aki Your love-hate relationship with the Queen-Bee is particularly interesting :).
-- With Regards,
Phares Kariuki
| T: +254 734 810 802 | E: pkariuki@gmail.com | Twitter: kaboro | Skype: kariukiphares |
@Aki, C'mon, is there anything that Safcom does that will not be interpreted as Anti-competitive? They are doing all they can to anticipate what their customers what and provide the services way in advance. Not unless you want us to be dragged back to the dark days of regulatory control, I fail to see your point. Are we now limiting the scope of a business in order to keep a level playing field? For all it's failings, MPesa is still a major success, and should their competition be up to it we should have punished them by switching to competition. What do we do, we still use Safcom. Lemme give you a head start on your research .. the reason for downtime last month was they were migrating MPESA to a dedicated SMSC in order to handle traffic requirements. Unlike other apps MPESA notification has to be sent and received instantaneously otherwise the transaction will not take place. If there's Safaricom Milk, I'll be on the queue because they have shown most appetite for innovation no matter how far they fall below our expectation ;-) Kiania On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:30 PM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
Hi @David, I beg to differ. :-)
This is another way for Safaricom to close a business avenue on its network and again come out as being dominant. Basically it has shut out any competition on the chat IM via data services from any third parties. SILLY HUMOR = Let me know as soon as their most innovative and dominant ways get to every kenyans backyard , i.e Safaricom Pharmacies, Safaricom Web Design and Hosting, Safaricom Software Developers, Safaricom Cement Company, Safaricom Farms and Equipment ( they already have the colours green ) just to suggest a few.
What Safaricom is doing is going to affect many kenyans ( whether positivley or negatively ) yet it frequently cannot sustain services. As soon as time becomes available, am going to do some research into the Failures and Flaws of Mpesa, how it has affected the confidence of Kenyans in such systems yet we should be the torch bearers of our own innovations and standards. I hear the Mpesa Platform was down for almost 48-72 hours last month? Unacceptable especially for a service that affects millions of kenyans.
So what will Kenyan Devs have to say about this new development? You have just been AXED in your development work, poolay.
My twisted views, advanced apology to anyone who maybe offended or if this post seems out of place. :-)
Rgds.
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
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-- [Asentric Consulting Ltd] If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth .... -Richest Man in Babylon
@David, ati Safaricom Milk!! lollest..we should soon start a list.. :-))))) On a serious note, let me share with you something. Back in the late 90s I had an office overlooking the Westlands Bus Stage. And every morning I used to witness a disturbing event regarding people who were trying to earn a living out of selling sweets and cigarettes etc. Most of them came on matatus, lay their wares and tried hard to make a living. Then there were others who were dropped in private vehicles, all shiny and had more goods. These people were also competing with the same guys that did not have much and would suceed because they had the financial muscle and facilties, including colluding with council guys. This led me to question all those kiosks that were in westlands and I discovered that big time people who owned them and would lease them out. So basically they were shutting out the lower end of people who were also struggling to make a living. I have seen such situations on many occasions. Competition is good but on fair grounds, not thuggish or brutal ways to dominate every single iota of avenues. And fact is, kenya's Telco sector employs many thousands of Kenyans whether directly or indirectly, we as a country need to ensure that all players get a chance to grow and as big as Safcom so that economic growth, equal opportunities and unemployment rates can go down. Safcom have the right intentions and business growth plans and I do appreciate what they have done for the market but when it all comes down to fair play, does it play? When you have a company raking in billions every year, what would be pushing them to move into business sectors that would increase their revenues? Where does it stop? The reality is Safcom is out to devour as much as it can and as soon as it can. When you have the financial muscle, anything is possible. These are not normal business practises and are usually indicators of short term bullish strategies. Me thots and criticism/corrections welcome. :-) On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:44 PM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
@Aki,
C'mon, is there anything that Safcom does that will not be interpreted as Anti-competitive? They are doing all they can to anticipate what their customers what and provide the services way in advance.
If there's Safaricom Milk, I'll be on the queue because they have shown most appetite for innovation no matter how far they fall below our expectation ;-)
Kiania
Aki, My 2 cents. It is important to look at both sides of the coin... we have often derided Telkom for never taking the opportunities and chances that their position gave them for decades. We said Telkom was rotting, eating from the palm of the tax payer. We prayed for some one with a fraction of a brain to give them a lecture on the mega-businesses they could create...null. Nothing happened. Now imagine if Safaricom was the same way, never taking up opportunities, never innovating, always assuming that one of the other telcos will take up this path or that and saying 'shame on you' when they don't. Would we like Safaricom more then, would it be better for the shareholders, would the end user be happier? Davis
@Davis, IMHO, I think we should not compare the old TKL and what the market now is. It would be saying that Section 2A was never repealed and the events that followed, which made Kenya a better country. Same way, the opening up of the telco sector has had its developments too. On the issue of increasing share holder value, it can also mean that someone else's plate is going to go empty because they could not get a job, though they may be talented or qualified. And at the end of the day, the unfortunate reality is that it is kenyans themselves who will face the issues, no one else. Heck, I've had my amatuer say so am outta here. I'm no economic specialist but would recommend that who is should enlighten us more on dominant business practises and their consequences. Asante. :-) On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Davis Waithaka <daviswaithaka@gmail.com> wrote:
Aki,
My 2 cents.
It is important to look at both sides of the coin... we have often derided Telkom for never taking the opportunities and chances that their position gave them for decades. We said Telkom was rotting, eating from the palm of the tax payer. We prayed for some one with a fraction of a brain to give them a lecture on the mega-businesses they could create...null. Nothing happened. Now imagine if Safaricom was the same way, never taking up opportunities, never innovating, always assuming that one of the other telcos will take up this path or that and saying 'shame on you' when they don't.
Would we like Safaricom more then, would it be better for the shareholders, would the end user be happier?
Davis
Aki, I see your point ... trust me I do. However, if Safaricom was not the kind of company it was, we would have long threads discussing all the possibilities that it is sadly not taking up. I think it is a Kenyan thing, damned if you do, damned if you dont... i usually then advise 'just do'. Davis
Aki, I see your point ... trust me I do. However, if Safaricom was not the kind of company it was, we would have long threads discussing all the possibilities that it is sadly not taking up. I think it is a Kenyan thing, damned if you do, damned if you dont... i usually then advise 'just do'. Davis
Why would they take 48 hrs to do an SMSC swap???? On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:44 PM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd < kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
@Aki,
C'mon, is there anything that Safcom does that will not be interpreted as Anti-competitive? They are doing all they can to anticipate what their customers what and provide the services way in advance.
Not unless you want us to be dragged back to the dark days of regulatory control, I fail to see your point. Are we now limiting the scope of a business in order to keep a level playing field?
For all it's failings, MPesa is still a major success, and should their competition be up to it we should have punished them by switching to competition. What do we do, we still use Safcom. Lemme give you a head start on your research .. the reason for downtime last month was they were migrating MPESA to a dedicated SMSC in order to handle traffic requirements. Unlike other apps MPESA notification has to be sent and received instantaneously otherwise the transaction will not take place.
If there's Safaricom Milk, I'll be on the queue because they have shown most appetite for innovation no matter how far they fall below our expectation ;-)
Kiania
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:30 PM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
Hi @David, I beg to differ. :-)
This is another way for Safaricom to close a business avenue on its network and again come out as being dominant. Basically it has shut out any competition on the chat IM via data services from any third parties. SILLY HUMOR = Let me know as soon as their most innovative and dominant ways get to every kenyans backyard , i.e Safaricom Pharmacies, Safaricom Web Design and Hosting, Safaricom Software Developers, Safaricom Cement Company, Safaricom Farms and Equipment ( they already have the colours green ) just to suggest a few.
What Safaricom is doing is going to affect many kenyans ( whether positivley or negatively ) yet it frequently cannot sustain services. As soon as time becomes available, am going to do some research into the Failures and Flaws of Mpesa, how it has affected the confidence of Kenyans in such systems yet we should be the torch bearers of our own innovations and standards. I hear the Mpesa Platform was down for almost 48-72 hours last month? Unacceptable especially for a service that affects millions of kenyans.
So what will Kenyan Devs have to say about this new development? You have just been AXED in your development work, poolay.
My twisted views, advanced apology to anyone who maybe offended or if this post seems out of place. :-)
Rgds.
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
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Just to point out, Safaricom didn't create Mxit, they're importing this from South Africa. Basically, using their marketing muscle to get major inroads in the data space (as you pointed out). How is MTN SA losing KES 80M per day? Aren't they making some of that back on data charges alone? Mxit isn't tied to just one network, you can access it from anywhere you can get a data signal, so Zain and Yu will work here too. Erik Hersman www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican On May 21, 2010, at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
Kiania _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
Eric, I concur with you it's an import with a huge following. If Mixit is available for all operators, why should we bash safcom for launching it first? Sorry developers: Safaricom owes you nothing and having been in the industry long enough I can say with confidence, we expect our pitches to be treated preferentially for the simple fact that it's done locally. Issues of scalability, security are paramount and no operator will allow you to use their live network as a test bed. Secondly and even more painfully, 'the developers' are single clusters of people who have all the ideas and the code in their head (who happen to be very moody). They work when they want and don't bother them if they are not up to it. That has nothing to do with Safcom, the market is awash with unfinished projects and missing developers. Being a listed company they must do all they can to secure their numbers, period. Kiania On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com> wrote:
Just to point out, Safaricom didn't create Mxit, they're importing this from South Africa. Basically, using their marketing muscle to get major inroads in the data space (as you pointed out). How is MTN SA losing KES 80M per day? Aren't they making some of that back on data charges alone? Mxit isn't tied to just one network, you can access it from anywhere you can get a data signal, so Zain and Yu will work here too.
Erik Hersman www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
On May 21, 2010, at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
Kiania _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
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-- [Asentric Consulting Ltd] If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth .... -Richest Man in Babylon
@David, @Aki, Erik, @All, I would also queue for Safaricom milk, because I'm pleasantly surprised by their innovation: m-pesa, 3g, m-kesho and now mixit. You'd expect a near-monopoly to sit back and rest on its laurels, not so with safcom. Safcom is clearly playing an important role in Kenya's IT space. However, Aki's concerns are also legitimate. Consider this: If Kenyans allow a private company to build and operate a road between two major cities, should the company also be allowed to control the usage of that road? Yes. But to what extent? At the minimum, the company must be allowed to set standards for vehicles and for road-behavior - standards that will maintain efficiency and earn them profits. It should charge toll by the ton. But, should it also be allowed to: - certify/license the vehicles that travel along that road? Or should this be done by an independent body? - form a trucking company, and disqualify trucks made by other companies from using the road? - reserve the road end-points for their exclusive use: to operate their own restaurants, gas stations and other businesses? - stretch your imagination I experienced this first-hand in Ghana (2008) when we were rolling out a mobile banking/payments platform. MTN and Ghana Telcom, the two dominant players, delayed the project for over 8 months. In the meantime, MTN started talking to our banks about their mobile money product - which was "under development". (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/M%20pesa%20reaps%20fro...). They simply took a "go slow" on our case, denying us even SMS short-codes and and stringing us along all that time. Our product did launch with Zain GH, and through proxy, on their networks, but were they mad to discover that.... But I digress. The one year it took MTN to roll out its mobile money, was a wasted opportunity for Ghana's IT. My hope is that Safcom exhibits no such tendencies. But, control of infrastructure is an immensely responsible, powerful and lucrative situation. And the temptation to abuse it can be too strong. My point is that, as long as we let the road constructor to profit from being a restauranter, a gas-station manager, a licensing body, a car/truck manufacturer, a transporter, a real estate company - all at the same time, we should not expect it to focus on making better roads that relay more tons/second, and to grant equal usage of its infrastructure to its competitors in the the services domain. This is where CCK comes in. Since most of telco's services originate from attempts to create demand and to generate traffic, the services should be transferred away from their control as soon as they outlive that purpose. I believe that CCK should strive to police the fidelity of the telcos to their original role, instead of attempting to micro-manage their business processes. Do telcos provide reasonably equal access to all service providers and users? For example, Safcom and MPesa are two separate entities, but are other mobile-money operators granted equal access as MPesa to Safcom's infrastructure? We should not fear when service sector businesses leverage other services to improve their bottom lines. These normally form linkages that create value for the consumer. What I think we should fear are infrastructure companies that dabble into services. After using that control to decimate their competition in the services domain, they will most surely stop innovating. My two cents Olive trees are important. They represent everything that roots us, anchors us, identifies us and locates us in this world - whether it be belonging to a family, a community, a tribe, a nation, a religion or, most of all, a place called home. - Thomas Friedman - "The Lexus And The Olive Tree" ________________________________ From: David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd <kianiadee@gmail.com> To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Sent: Fri, May 21, 2010 5:13:11 AM Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Mixit: Safaricom Rules Eric, I concur with you it's an import with a huge following. If Mixit is available for all operators, why should we bash safcom for launching it first? Sorry developers: Safaricom owes you nothing and having been in the industry long enough I can say with confidence, we expect our pitches to be treated preferentially for the simple fact that it's done locally. Issues of scalability, security are paramount and no operator will allow you to use their live network as a test bed. Secondly and even more painfully, 'the developers' are single clusters of people who have all the ideas and the code in their head (who happen to be very moody). They work when they want and don't bother them if they are not up to it. That has nothing to do with Safcom, the market is awash with unfinished projects and missing developers. Being a listed company they must do all they can to secure their numbers, period. Kiania On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com> wrote:
Just to point out, Safaricom didn't create Mxit, they're importing this from South Africa. Basically, using their marketing muscle to get major inroads in the data space (as you pointed out). How is MTN SA losing KES 80M per day? Aren't they making some of that back on data charges alone? Mxit isn't tied to just one network, you can access it from anywhere you can get a data signal, so Zain and Yu will work here too.
Erik Hersman www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
On May 21, 2010, at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
Kiania _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
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-- [Asentric Consulting Ltd] If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth .... -Richest Man in Babylon _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
Bill Gates motto was, " We create something,, and then make people realize that they dont have it,, and we make them realize that they need it." Safcom is simply looking ahead - and "ahead" as the Telkom Market goes, is data services. By providing the IM service, it is placing a bet on a service that may or may not succeed - but then again, should people take it up, they will be there to provide the service. With regulations and competition on contemporary services such a voice and typical data - pricing models may change in years to come, where Safcom may be forced to lower its prices, and thus not meet its high gross. Investing in diverse gambles on data, may just provide a winning bet in one of hundreds of services in the future - at the same time, some of those investments may die. May be, when someone develops an application to equal "MXit" in Kenya, and convinces Safcom to pay attention, and Safaricom tests and sees it viable - it may just migrate its MXit user base to the local app - but until then...
Idea: Find a way to tunnel data across messages as a low-band data transfer mechanism
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=... On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 1:43 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
Bill Gates motto was, " We create something,, and then make people realize that they dont have it,, and we make them realize that they need it."
Safcom is simply looking ahead - and "ahead" as the Telkom Market goes, is data services.
By providing the IM service, it is placing a bet on a service that may or may not succeed - but then again, should people take it up, they will be there to provide the service.
With regulations and competition on contemporary services such a voice and typical data - pricing models may change in years to come, where Safcom may be forced to lower its prices, and thus not meet its high gross.
Investing in diverse gambles on data, may just provide a winning bet in one of hundreds of services in the future - at the same time, some of those investments may die.
May be, when someone develops an application to equal "MXit" in Kenya, and convinces Safcom to pay attention, and Safaricom tests and sees it viable - it may just migrate its MXit user base to the local app - but until then...
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KES 80M?? I think not. I know Mxit has grown alot and all lakini I fail to see where they have cost MTN the 80M. Because in essence Mxit enables users to send messages through chat and not SMS, so basically Mxit eats into your revenue and not supporting it saves you money and not make you lose it. I stand to be corrected though. v On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com> wrote:
Just to point out, Safaricom didn't create Mxit, they're importing this from South Africa. Basically, using their marketing muscle to get major inroads in the data space (as you pointed out).
How is MTN SA losing KES 80M per day? Aren't they making some of that back on data charges alone? Mxit isn't tied to just one network, you can access it from anywhere you can get a data signal, so Zain and Yu will work here too.
Erik Hersman www.whiteafrican.com <http://www.afrigadget.com> | @whiteafrican<http://twitter.com/whiteafrican>
On May 21, 2010, at 11:55 AM, David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd wrote:
For all the flack Safcom gets on this list we have to give them marks for innovation and forethought. In today's newspaper they have launched Mixit (http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/) is a Peer-to-Peer IM client that runs on mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile. While some see this as cannibalizing SMS revenues, it's a stroke of genius because they still stand to make cash from the data traffic as opposed to loosing it to a competitor all together. (Rule No. 4 in business: Cannibalize your revenue and business model before your competition does it for you)
After declining to support Mixit as a product, MTN SA now looses more than 8M Rand (KES 80M) a day, and the sad part, the app runs on their platform on either gprs/edge.
Kudos Safaricom, You Rock!
Kiania _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet
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participants (13)
-
aki -
Bernard Mwagiru -
Bernard Owuor -
David Kiania | Asentric Consulting Ltd -
David Mugo -
Davis Waithaka -
Erik Hersman -
kennedy kariuki -
ndungu stephen -
Phares Kariuki -
Rad! -
rsohan＠gmail.com -
Victor Ngeny