Mobile content by Linus Gitahi

Mobile content by Linus Gitahi

• 1.
  AFRICA MEDIA LEADERSHIPCONFERENCE 2009 Learning form the Future: Africa’s Media Map in 2009 October 4th – 7th: Accra, Ghana “Is Mobile Content the Answer to the Needs of Africa’s ‘Digital Natives’?” A Presentation by: Mr. Linus Gitahi Group Chief Executive Officer Nation Media Group October 2009© 1
• 2.
  INTRODUCTION: Young people todayborn into a digital world are experiencing a far different environment of information-gathering and access to knowledge than a generation ago. Who are these "digital natives" and what are they thinking? How are they using the technology, and are IT & Media experts adequately responding to them? I will embark on exploring this interesting topic by quoting Maggie Shiels, a BBC journalist in an article she wrote last year titled “Are you a digital native or an old dog?” The interesting idea in the article is that most of the world today can easily be divided between two paradigms: ‘digital natives’, ‘digital immigrants’, and ‘analog exiles’. The article reveals a new study by the research company Forrester targeting consumer behaviour and viewed as "the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumers' attitudes, ownership and use of technology." Some interesting trends are clear: According to Charles Golvin, a principal analyst at Forrester, a major strength of the report is that it includes a broad swath of so called Generation Y members. They are youngsters in the 18-28 age brackets, a group that "sets the pace for technology adoption." "Gen Y is the audience that most companies are struggling to understand right now because it's key to their future revenue growth." Surely you might think its Generation X everybody wants to sweet talk because they have the spending power? Not so said Mr Golvin who noted the distinction as thus. While Generation X, use technology when it supports a lifestyle need, for Generation Y, technology is deeply embedded into everything. They are truly the first native online population. They are heavy users of new media. It is their default. 2
• 3.
  The survey showedthat nine in 10 Generation Y, own a personal computer and 82% own a mobile phone. More crucially Gen Y spends more time online, for leisure or work, than watching old fashioned TV. 72% use their phone to send or receive texts and 42% watch internet video at least once a month. In short what the study seems to say is that it's not just about how much technology these sectors of the digital society have, but how they use it. Today’s Generation Y have enormous access to digital technology and display characteristics such as digital fluency and familiarity with new technologies never before imagined, they are digital natives. They are the speakers of the digital language of computers, mobile telephones, the Internet and other associated technologies. They typically produce and share digital content, such as blogs, digital images, digital audio or video files and SMS messages. Generation Y have grown up in a world dominated by mobile telephones. Mobile telephones have perhaps been the fastest growing technology in recent years. In a world population of 6 billion, there are 1.5 billion mobile phones1. Mobile device adoption continues to rise, for example, in the U.S. in 2004, there were 181.1 million mobile users, which surpassed the number of land-based lines, 177.9 million. In China there are 358 million mobile phones and this figure grows by 160,000 per day2. The global sales of smart phones or internet-enabled pc- capability telephones, in 2003, overtook sales of PDAs and by the year 2010 it is estimated that the global sales of smart phones will reach 170million. The mobile telephone provides users with access to communication channels, video and audio technologies, and Internet access and text messages. The number of users engaging with these capabilities is reflected, for example, in statistics such as those from America where in June 2005, approximately 5 billion text messages were sent. 1 Keegan, D. (2004). The incorporation of mobile learning into mainstream education and training. Paper presented at The 18th Asian Association of Open Universities Annual Conference. 2 ibid 3
• 4.
  Today’s Generation Yis digitally fluent and interacts with Internet-based technologies in a variety of ways. As reported by a survey3 conducted in America on 625 youths aged between 10 to 17 years; • 71% used the Internet to get news or information • 68% used their computers to send and receive emails • 56% to get information about sports, entertainment and hobbies • 54% to talk in chat rooms • 17% to get health or medical information • 17% to shop These findings are indicative of worldwide trends, as 79% of youths reported having access to a home computer, 48% reported frequently using it for word processing and 55% reported using the Internet for information4. Thus we can see by this brief examination of the characteristics of digital technologies in today’s society that Generation Y is well described as digital natives. Consumers today have a rich variety of new communication means at their hands, thus many behavioral patterns are shifting. Digital natives, born in the 1990s and later, take Internet and mobile phones for granted and have adopted a life style truly encompassing new communication and media consumption paradigms. Digital immigrants still make up the majority of consumers, but are gradually incorporating Internet and mobility centric behavior in their lives. And there is still analog exiles opting to stay outside the digital society but a majority of the exiles will connect when they get the means to do it. The behavioral changes identified encompass globalization, a focus on experiences, and individualization of communication and media consumption, global tribalism and peering. These insights are essential for all players in the industry to grasp in order to drive new and innovative solutions that will pave the way toward an exciting future for broadband. 3 YouthFacts. (2006). Youth Facts: General Information about Youths in Australia. Retrieved January 23, 2007, from http://www.youthfacts.com.au/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=263&op=page 4 OECD. (2005). Programme for International Student Assessment. Retrieved January 14, 2007, from http://www.pisa.oecd.org 4
• 5.
  Let’s take thelong view. Consumers are changing. The early adopters of mobile phones and the internet ten years ago have been replaced by much more sophisticated users, especially youth who have grown up with information communication (infocom) technology, such as the internet, mobile phones and game consoles, as ordinary, integrated parts of their lives. These users are educated consumers with the power to control the price they will pay for the services they want. They are also more experienced consumers of media than any previous generation. Communication networks grow and take new forms with advances in, and increased understanding of, technology. Technology-enabled social networks, for example, allow people to manage a complex social web – one that is constantly growing and expanding thanks to an increasing number of ways in which people can interconnect and interact with one another. Take the mobility of mobile phones, the convenience of e-mail, and the accessibility of mobile broadband, which comes with a plenitude of new communication devices. Then add modes of communication with a vested position in the consumer environment and you have all the elements for a rich communication landscape. How will consumers be affected by this changing communication landscape and what are the implications? Our society today is quite different from that of just ten or twenty years ago. The rise of the internet, the growth and diffusion of mobile phones, and developments in global mass-media has changed the world in fundamental ways, and will continue to do so. We are in the early stages of democratization; the power is shifting to users via new forms of media consumption and publishing tools, such as blogs, communities for user-generated content, RSS tools, and so on. Moving ahead, it will be difficult, if not downright impossible, to succeed in the marketplace with outmoded concepts about consumers. This is because contemporary consumers are going through major transformations in terms of what they seek, how they perceive the world and themselves, how they behave, and what motivates them. 5
• 6.
  Does Africa haveits share of Digital Natives? More specifically Kenya as an example has some landmark statistics pointing to trends forecast for Africa’s media, mobile technology and integration. • In a recent market survey conducted in March 2009 by a Kenyan research firm, Synovate/Steadman, more Kenyans have used or touched a mobile phone, than have ever stared at a television screen • In August 2009, Safaricom, Kenya’s leading telecommunications company, had what it describes as the "world's first commercial release of a low-end solar-power mobile phone". Invariably, the non-availability of electricity is no longer a barrier to mobile phone ownership). • Two years ago, less than 200,000 people accessed the internet via mobile phone on the Safaricom network. That number is now going toward 3million subscribers all connected to their new comprehensive digital platform – Safaricom Live incorporating mobile banking via Safaricom's M-Pesa, accessing Live site, advertising, finding dates through its classified section, reading news through a mobile phone • Recently a Kenyan premium rate provider Cellulant, recorded 3.6m downloads for ringtones and wallpapers in 2008 and 2009. Now that most of the developed world has reached high penetration levels of mobile phones, both current growth patterns and future projections suggest that virtually all of the mobile industries new customers in the coming years will come from developing countries. In fact, as of 2007, there were more mobile customers in developing countries than in the entire developed world5. 5 ITU,GSMA Report 2007 6
• 7.
  At the tinyGaithuri River in Giathi Village, a rural locality in Kenya, Mama Wambui stands. She is down in her arrowroot farm but has to answer a call from another woman across the ridge. She is 34 and a mother of six. Mama Wambui did not go beyond class five; she dropped out and was married off at a young age. However, Mama Wambui has found herself a new territory, where she teaches other women how to operate their mobile phones. Checking credit and loading credit, Mama Wambui helps them all. She is a hero in Giathi village. BusinessWeek6 reports that the GSM Association has released a report with data noting that the mobile phone has an undeniable positive influence on the social and economic development at the bottom of the pyramid in developing nations facing infrastructural challenges. Jeffrey Sachs7 asserts of the mobile phone impact on poverty, “Extreme poverty is almost synonymous with extreme isolation, especially rural isolation. But mobile phones and wireless Internet end isolation, and will therefore prove to be the most transformative technology of economic development of our time”. The digital divide is ending not through a burst of civic responsibility, but mainly through market forces. Mobile phone technology is so powerful, and costs so little per unit of data transmission, that it has proved possible to sell mobile phone access to the poor. There are now more than 3.3bn subscribers in the world, roughly one for every two people on the planet. In Africa, has a soaring market, with more than 280 million subscribers. 6 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/europeinsight/archives/2008/08/data_supports_m.html 7 http://www.gulf times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=236882&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26 7
• 8.
  The digital divideis beginning to close. The flow of digital information – through mobile phones, text messaging, and the Internet – is now reaching the world’s masses, even in the poorest countries, bringing with it a revolution in economics, politics, and society. Mobile phones are now ubiquitous in villages as well as cities. If an individual does not have a cell phone, they almost surely know someone who does. Probably a significant majority of Africans have at least emergency access to a cell phone, either self owned, a neighbor’s, or one at a commercial kiosk. Even more remarkable is the continuing “convergence” of digital information: wireless systems increasingly link mobile phones with the Internet, personal computers, and information services of all kinds. The array of benefits is stunning. The rural poor in more and more of the world now have access to wireless banking and payments systems, such as Kenya’s famous M-PESA system, which allows money transfers through the phone. The information carried on the new networks spans public health, medical care, education, banking, commerce, and entertainment, in addition to communications among family and friends. On the fully commercial side, the mobile revolution is creating a logistics revolution in farm-to- retail marketing. Farmers and food retailers can connect directly through mobile phones and distribution hubs, enabling farmers to sell their crops at higher “farm-gate” prices and without delay, while buyers can move those crops to markets with minimum spoilage and lower prices for final consumers. The strengthening of the value chain not only raises farmers’ incomes, but also empowers crop diversification and farm upgrading more generally. Similarly, world-leading software firms are bringing information technology jobs, including business process outsourcing, right into the villages through digital networks. 8
• 9.
  Education will besimilarly transformed. Throughout the world, schools at all levels will go global, joining together in worldwide digital education networks. Children in the US will learn about Africa, China, and India not only from books and videos, but also through direct links across classrooms in different parts of the world. Students will share ideas through live chats, shared curricula, joint projects, and videos, photos, and text sent over the digital network. Universities, too, will have global classes, with students joining lectures, discussion groups, and research teams from a dozen or more universities at a time. Lessons for Media in Africa: Nation Media Group experience From the discourse about ‘Digital Natives’ just discussed it is clear that: • The “digital natives” are born into digital technology. • They are used to receiving information really fast. • They like to parallel process and multitask. • They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. • They prefer random access (like hypertext). • They function best when networked. • They thrive on instant gratification. Their attention spans are not short for games or for anything else that actually interests them. As a result of their experiences, digital natives crave interactivity – an immediate response to their each and every action. It isn’t that digital natives can’t pay attention; it’s that they choose not to. They have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic, and “tell-test” instruction. Today’s youth in particular want greater personal control over lifestyle choices. Connectivity plays an important role in creating a lifestyle that is rich in relationships and experiences. 9
• 10.
  Changing attitudes, agreater desire to belong, and interconnectedness are driving this thirst for control. That and the fact that digital natives feel stressed when not connected. Not only does connectivity increase one’s opportunities to locate occasions for social gatherings not publicized by the media (and help bring them to the attention of one’s friends in real-time), it also makes it possible to bring in, at the last moment, additional people without having to fix a rendezvous point beforehand. Digital natives are better informed, better connected, more communicative, and in greater control than ever before. They’re better informed thanks to an increased ability to access abundance of information, anywhere and at any time. They’re better connected thanks to instant communication with others across time zones and social strata. They communicate more by publishing and sharing their ideas and opinions instantly on the net. And they’re in greater control because they can personalize their information and entertainment consumption, the marketing messages they receive, and the selection of products and services they buy. Globalization is a hot topic – the globalization of information, media, and products, for example. On the one hand, one could argue that globalization leads to homogenization. Due to global communications, specifically in terms of visual images (from television, movies, music videos and advertising) brand names are increasingly becoming global spectacles of everyday life. One could thus argue that trends, especially among youth, are similar, and becoming more so, the world over. Notwithstanding, one product of globalization is fragmentation. More precisely, we are seeing the globalization of a broad variety of fragmented, local trends. That is, all images, products, brand names and lifestyles which create excitement, sensation, appeal and interest on a sustainable basis can and do find their marks. Regardless of nationality or cultural background, consumers are willing to sample and experience a variety of styles and cultural artifacts at different times and for different purposes. Therefore, globalization is not a process whereby one form or style dominates over, or eliminates, all others. Instead, it is the diffusion of certain forms and styles around the world. 10
• 11.
  Media fragmentation ishere to stay, and on an enormous scale. To better understand fragmented media, watch teenagers zap between computer games and TV programs while also chatting or texting. Observe their attention span when commercials run. Watch them browse the web as easily as you turn the pages of a newspaper. Then consider that this behavior will not change as this group grows older. On the contrary, you have witnessed a permanent shift in the way people consume media. This early adopter practice will gradually become a mass market resulting in a new media situation. More and more households are moving from one TV in the living room to multiple screens – more TV sets, and internet-connected computers. Thanks to the internet, we have moved from expensive and high barriers to entering the media publishing market. Today, virtually anyone with a modem and computer can publish and broadcast TV-like content. As a result, media companies have less influence on what and when we consume (one-way flow). Instead, we decide what we want to watch, when, and on what device. And this trend is still nascent: digital natives rip, burn, remix and share their media. In the future, even more devices will capture and display content. Time-and-space-shifted media consumption will grow, driven by “digital instant gratification”. This in turn is leading toward a profound shakeup of all but a few media mega-brands. Established media channels, such as NMG’s NTV, will have to compete with podcasting and file- sharing; newspapers will have to compete with the online news alerts; and consumer magazines will have to hold their stakes against blogs. However, the ready availability of content will soon turn the mass market upside down; the big sellers are selling less, and niche, “long-tail” markets are multiplying. In long-tail markets and with products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters. 11
• 12.
  In Conclusion: Challenges& Opportunities The concept of individualization occurs at times when the supply of products, services and information is booming. We will also see more and more customized networks and products. Mass-customization will enable individuals to order “content for one”. The internet has gradually started to displace television as the main source of entertainment and information. Furthermore, we use the internet for more and more communication services and vital practical services, such as banking. The world is changing radically, and we’re only part way into the journey to a society that is digital and networked. One major occurrence has been the transition from shared communication devices to personal communication devices. One other is connectivity. Today, 48% of all consumers globally8 agree that a computer without an internet connection is has little value. The internet has become indispensable, and more and more users want to have access to it everywhere – 50% say that having high-speed internet everywhere is important. Users want the freedom and mobility associated with the concept of mobile broadband; they want to be able to access the internet wherever they can use a mobile phone – because the concept conveys independence. But this story is not just about people and connectivity. New wireless technologies will also be used to link objects. Nearly 10 billion microprocessors will be sold this year. As the cost, size and power requirements of wireless functions fall, some unlikely candidates are being connected to networks, leading to more connected devices – not just stationary computers and laptops, but ultra-mobile PCs, portable game consoles as well as ordinary TV sets, cameras, and media players. As these two technologies converge, with wireless capabilities being put on computer chips, we see all the benefits of the computing world (innovation, short development cycles, and low cost) being extended to mobile communications. As a result, a myriad of hitherto separate objects are being connected to networks. The new technology enables 8 Research by Ericsson in 2008 12
• 13.
  owners/operators to exercisecontrol from great distances, and allows a variety of devices to interconnect and interact to do something completely new. In the future, we will be able to access any services we want from the device of our choosing. Combined with the creativity of consumers and the collaborative effects of Web 2.0, this will pave the way toward an exciting future for Media in Africa. 13