African Internet: Tech giants vie for market leadership
It's no secret that down here in deepest Africa, we are not huge technological frontrunners. The interest (not to mention the energy) is just not there – for now, anyway. We at Biznews have great faith in the (eventual) focus on tech in SA and the continent at large, and it seems that global giants have sniffed out the same opportunity. Google, Facebook and Wikipedia are hauling out major campaigns and initiatives to gain market share across the Africa, though perhaps not in the same way we had hoped. This article discusses the intentions, possible downfalls and outcomes of the rush for African markets by the giants in industry.- CH
By Joe Brock
JOHANNESBURG, March 24 (Reuters) – Google and Facebook are at the forefront of a scramble to win over new African Internet users, offering freebies they say give a leg-up to the poor but which critics argue is a plan to lock in customers on a continent of 1 billion people.
This growth is attracting interest from Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia, which are striking deals with service providers such as Vodacom , MTN, Bharti Airtel and Safaricom to offer users free, or 'zero-rated' access to their sites and services.
Facebook, through its Internet.org programme, offers a stripped-down version of its social network and some other sites for free in what it says is an exercise to "connect the two thirds of the world that doesn't have Internet access".
Google has said its "free zone" is aimed at a billion people without the Internet in the developing world.
'Digital Prison'
Critics, however, say big service providers and Internet companies are luring African users into using their services, giving them opportunities for greater advertising revenue.
Giving Africans free access to some Internet sites may also stunt innovation and limit the opportunities for African entrepreneurs, making online technology another industry on the continent dominated by big foreign companies.
Regulation
Telecoms operators say self-regulating bandwidth usage is important to ensure heavy data users, such as people who download movies, don't clog up bandwidth for lower Internet users.
But African countries don't have tough rules on "net neutrality", meaning some services could be given faster access than others, which some activists say could give bigger companies an advantage over new market entrants.
The 24 sub-Saharan African countries tracked by Internet monitoring site WebIndex have "evidence of discrimination" in the allocation of bandwidth and have "no effective law and regulations" on Internet freedom.
"There is little transparency into the Internet operators' deals so it is hard to see where conflict of interests might be," Jensen said. "You're left just having to trust them."
"I'm not a fan of 'zero-rated' services but there is an argument to say: 'something is better than nothing'."