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Investors Turn to Mobile Directory MarketJun 30, 2010 (Business Daily/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- More investors are putting their money in mobile applications, hoping the massive uptake of mobile telephony will help sustain the new business models. Mocality is a new mobile-based application that serves up an array of services to small businesses in what promises to be a game-changing innovation in the nascent mobile directory market. The firm, part of the multi-media Naspers Group that owns the MultiChoice franchise, is offering an application that allows businesses to have standard and mobile websites through which they are reached by customers or suppliers. In addition, the businesses that sign up get free 400 text messages that they can use to send promotional information to their clients or place orders with their suppliers. Mocality CEO, Mr Stefan Magdalinski, said the firm's priority is to create a "compelling product" before it can start charging. "One of the biggest problems you face when you try to build a business directory, unlike other kinds of web applications, is that until you have a critical mass you don't have a compelling product for consumers," Mr Magdalinski said. "If somebody searches for a salon in South 'B' estate and finds none, then the directory is not only unhelpful but erroneous because we know there are quite a number of salons in that estate." Mr Magdalinski added that Mocality's target group is small businesses whose budget restrains them from more expensive marketing and brand promotion tools. Mocality has signed up over 20,000 businesses in Nairobi against a potential of 100,000, which the firm hopes to enlist by August. "What differentiates us from other mobile directories is our sheer flexibility and value-added services," Mr Magdalinski said. He explained that a business owner is in charge of his or her firm's listing on Mocality's web servers. One can modify the content as often as they like to reflect changes in their telephone contacts and physical addresses. In addition, a business can list its products or services and prices charged and send promotional messages to prospective clients. All these are done using a mobile phone. Major innovation But the major innovation in the Mocality suite is the fact that it enables mobile phone users to search a business using Google Maps, placing the target business in a specific physical context and giving directions. Other mobile directory players charge from Sh10 for each SMS query to their database. For Mocality, the services -- bulk SMSes and online searches -- are free. Users pay standard operator data charges for online searches. Though Mocality declined to comment on their investment, it is likely to run into millions of shillings as the firm aims at introducing the product in other towns in Kenya and in other African markets, with Nairobi chosen as a pilot zone because of its large base of sophisticated mobile users. The ongoing digital revolution is sweeping away old business models and creating new ones in their place. Recently, Kenya Postel Directories invested Sh15 million in an online directory service, signalling the growing importance of electronic directories at the expense of printed versions. The deepening penetration of internet connectivity, driven by falling computer prices and mobile modems as well as mobile-enabled handsets, has seen a growing preference for searching businesses online. Postel charges Sh10 for each SMS query. Over the last five years, numerous websites have sprung up to serve as directories. The shift to electronic directories has drawn the interest of entrepreneurs who seek to grab a share of the revenues -- advertising fees from Google and annual subscription fees. Willys Ochieng, the owner of Kenya Online Directory, told Business Daily that companies pay varying fees to be hosted for a year on the website, depending on their size. "We charge from Sh10,000 to Sh45,000. Higher fees are for large corporates," he said. Analysts said the mobile phone is poised to edge out computers as the dominant tool for accessing the internet, especially in emerging markets like Africa. Kenya has at least 20 million mobile subscribers, representing a penetration rate of 50 per cent. The total internet subscribers stood at 1.9 million by end of last year, according to data from the Communications Commission of Kenya. Qualcomm, a leading telecom research and development firm, forecasts the global sales of smartphones -- popular for faster internet and data services -- to match the sale of personal computers (PCs) by next year at about 350 million units and thereafter to stay ahead of PC sales. |