Kenya’s Very Own CNBC?
I was breezing through Aly khan Satchu’s website and it has some very good tv interviews on there. You should all check them out if you get a chance. I’d recommend listening to the interview with the founder/CEO of East Africa Cables, Mugo Kibati (very sharp guy he is). I also enjoyed listening to the interview with Jimnah Mbaru where he explained the evolution and growth of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (it really was an entrepreneurial venture developed with lots of risk and personal sacrifice).
The website is kind of a hassle to access though. You have to register and once you do, you get one years worth of free access. I’m assuming after a year’s time, he’ll start charging people for access and that’s when he’ll lose all his readers. You can’t make money on the internet by charging people for information. The only way you make money is by offering everything for free and making money off the advertising.
Satchu’s website is very well designed, but I’m surprised he’s trying to charge people for it’s content instead of going the advertising route.
I also want to talk about this company: East African Cables. In the interview above, the CEO seemed to enjoy talking about the internet and especially VOIP, but EAC is really a manufacturing company (according to it’s website, they manufacture and supply voltage and electrical cable lines). Is EAC thinking about getting into the internet/telecommunications business? similar to what a verizon or comcast is doing? i.e. build the physical infrastructure and also get into content delivery?
What other interview did I find interesting? The interview with the Somens – founders of Access Kenya. I still don’t get how these guys are doing it. I had a post on them a while back and no one was able to quite answer this question. I mean, internet access in Kenya is still a joke. So, what’s so special about these guys? I still think it’s just the lack of competition and once that cable line gets to Kenya, I’ll be curious to see how well this company does with the increased competition.
Anyway, go to the website and check out the interviews because they are quite interesting.
KE,
I must say I HATE this guy’s website. Nothing personal but It’s just a so damn hard to get thru…how did u do it?
Mzeiya:
It is a pain to get through because you have to register, but registration is free for one year. I know he’s trying to make money of this venture, but like I said before, he is going to have to do it through advertising. He has very good content and if he made his site free and easily accessible, he could really build up his readership and then solicit paid ad’s from businesses such as banks, brokers, etc, etc
KE,
Your idea seems like basic common sense and I’m wondering why he can’t see that despite his good credentials from over sees.
thing is, I tried registering again and again, and every time the site asks me to register..again!
How does Access make money you ask? by charging exorbitant fees to those who use their services.
girlinthemeadow:
How many ISP providers are there in Kenya today? because I’m assuming that when that cable line comes through, if things are done the right way and other companies are allowed to buy licenses to provide ISP services in Kenyan, Access Kenya will be forced to bring their prices down. Although I’m sure the founders of Access Kenya will do everything they can to prevent more players from getting in on the action.
Did you watch their interview? I’d say 50% of it was bullshit happy talk. They talked about how much they “value” their employee’s and blah, blah, blah…..
The truth of the matter is, these guys moved back to kenya to start this business because they knew they could never compete in England or America. Then, they used their political connections to get the license to run this company, they do everything to block the competition and that’s how they are able to charge exorbitant fee’s.
Who is their biggest competitor?
There is ISP Kenya, there is Africa Online, Wananchi. Now, this is how business is done in Kenya, if you are first you do everything you can to stay there and on top of that buy every other company that tries to compete with you. Another thing is Kenyans are not into tech-investments or at least it has taken forever to get into that so i bet Access can grow before competition really sets in .
KE: Ohh… puhleeze…
There were many others before AK… but AK provided better service… the Somens are not perfect but they did a better job than most. Did you know flashcom & popote provide data services? BUT how many businessfolk know of them?
BTW, AfricaOnline was a public company that went under & the name/assets were bought out of bankruptcy but the name was retained.
AK competed with an incompetent giant called KPT&C (the forefather of Telkom & Posta). When moi & idiots ran the country like their fucking fiefdom, the only internet access provider was KPT&C.
AK grew out of nothing. It was not the political connections but they saw the opportunity to grow their business.
BTW, stop being an ignoramus. David Somen also runs an IT firm (that predates AK) in the UK.
The GoK (& CCK) prices for ISP (among other licenses) are too high. AK has been fighting the high fees. Of course, all businesses try to limit competition but the IT market in Kenya is fragmented.
AK’s biggest competitor is Safaricom not the other ISPs thus they are branching out into providing value via other services.
Competitors:
UUNet (AfricaOnline is owned by Telkom of USA)
Safaricom
Celtel
InstaConnect (Wi-Max)
Popote
Flashcom
Telkom Kenya
and many, many others…
KE,
I tend to agree with some of the above sentiments though i must point out that there are other aspects necessary when considering your ISP which have been ignored.
A point in case are clients located in remote areas {here Lamu & Watamu areas in Coast come to mind} where we have no proper infrastructure for Internet connectivity where nearly more than 50% internet users rely on the Telkom dial up service which offers speeds of up to 19kbps via a telephone link! In fact AK shuns these places and only a few other players (i’d call them competitors) try to offer services at very high prices and with pathetic quality services!
Most of the listed competitors only offer services to the urban centers and normally don’t seem to factor in the rural clientèle. SwiftGlobal is one company making inroads is such areas offering the WIFI service, Telkom Wireless is a joke for corporate clientèle and though VSAT is offered by companies such as Afsat (iWay Africa)Communications it is regarded as an expensive affair by most would-be-clients.
It is indeed true that the IT market in Kenya is fragmented and armed this knowledge at hand the AK think tanks have managed to stay well ahead of their so called competitors with little aid from the CCK!
Safaricom on the other hand has the reach and i do agree they are the biggest competitor to AK but then i doubt they are geared into venturing wholesale into the ISP thing just yet considering their core business is to offer Mobile services.
Wow! The commitment fee alone paid by the CCK is equivalent to the total cost of the project…
A very interesting piece, i think this explains why Kenyans have to wait a little longer for this undersea fibre optic cable!
http://www.nationmedia.com/dai.....sid=125543
Arafathi:
That is a very interesting article. So far, it looks like the government has sunk 60 million dollars of TAXPAYER money into the project with the so-called 11 “private partners” in kenya having sunk nothing! not one penny.
But yet, these private partners, who have so far borne no financial risk for this project are going to be allocated majority shares? According to the article,
“The ministry insists that the 11 companies will bear the greater part of the financial burden of the construction”.
Who is going to ensure that these 11 companies do this? and are they going to pay back the 60 million used so far or are they going to come up with additional money that is still needed?
This whole thing is very confusing.
the guy behind rich.co.ke, what exactly is his gameplan. Is he an investor (i know he’s been a bigtime trader in NY/LN) or in the media/stocks-info business?
Just curious…
Petej:
I don’t think he was a “big-time trader”. If you are making millions of dollars in the financial capitals of the world (New York and London) – you don’t move back to Kenya to set-up an internet site where you are trying to charge people for information.
in regards of rich.co.ke, that is a site poorly organized, very dull and have no “rich feel”. I tried registering but the code never made it to my inbox, good idea tho. Do you guys think Access Kenya might get a chance after we get the cables? what will the scenario be for most of this companies? I personally think Safaricom will dominate that market too since they will have all the investors money to spend.
I registered and was able to access the material in seconds. Why don’t you guys stop being jealous!
KE
Yes, a big time trader who knows what he’s doing can move back and start “an internet site”
all your comments are correct but unfortunately don’t change our current predicament of poor internet services run by over-zealous corporate entities. i am of the opinion that we should put out ads for tendering a private company locally founded and humbly grown to solve the issue at hand.yaliopita si ndwele tugange yajayo!!
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