Google Chrome and the Third World (Why it will fail)

The announcement by Google of a new operating system did not come as a surprise to alot of people. Its a natural progression in the quest of Google to control the web. Google is a web company that profits from its myriad of web properties that people use via advertising, Google as a company earned $21Billion last year with 95% of that revenue coming from it Adsense program. So the more “eyeballs” that Google can direct to any of its web properties the higher the probability of someone clicking an advert leading to income for Google. The journey started with the release of the Chrome web browser which coincidentally shares the same name with the OS, then the Android operating system and the Chrome OS.

Google is no longer seeking to being the destination of choice for the average user of the web but the only destination for the avrage user of the web by trying to make itself the gateway to the Internet.  The main idea behind the Chrome OS is a custom GUI acting as a wrapper around the Linux kernel with the Chrome browser running on top which by default would direct users to google’s web apps such as gmail, docs, reader, search etc, this means that the netbooks which are going to run the Chrome OS would have to have uninterrupted access to the Internet. This is one reason why the OS will not have a large adoption in the third world i.e Africa.

In Africa, Internet is still very far from being ubiquitous, constant electricity is a luxury. So without Internet access, the Chrome OS would be useless because Internet access is not wide spread and where it is found, the  cost is quite prohibitive and far beyond the reach of the average person who lives on less than $1 per day. Even for those who can afford Internet access they would still have a hard time using the Chrome OS because the average “Broadband” speed in Africa is between (100-300)Kbps which produces a poor experience just surfing the web with a browser, so the experience where the OS depends on the Internet where there would be alot of background processes going on is less than imagined.

This critique of the Google Chrome OS might be a little too early since its still vapourware but I dont see any drastic changes coming to the state of Internet access in Africa between now and the proposed launch date of mid 2010.

Ehigie (Pystar) Aito

Building a World Class Startup (The Nigerian story)

      Nigeria is a country of 140 million people, 60 million mobile subscribers (the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world), 10 million Internet users (debatable figure). As Justin Hartman noted in the recent BarCamp held in Lagos, its strange that a country with such huge potential doesn’t have a world class Internet Company. The reasonfor this I will try to expose in this post.

1. Nigerian hackers have a “Me-Too” mentality: Most programmers/geeks in Nigeria always want to do what others are doing, which to me smacks of lack of innovation and creativity . They try to ride on a wave that has already passed them by, entering an oversaturated market that is already dominated by established leaders (e.g. “Naijapals” versus “Facebook”).  There is a quote I read somewhere “good hackers code, while great hackers copy”, I believe its not a sin to copy, but copying blindly isn’t going to stand you out and attract users to your web property, even if you want to copy an idea there should be a new twist in your own copy and not just a 100% copy. At least Facebook was not the first social networking site on the web and neither was Google the first search engine, the only thing was that they introduced a new angle into what they did which stood them out of the crowd.
2. Means of accessing the Internet: In a recent survey, it was discovered that Nigeria has a population of about 10 million Internet users, a figure that I find highly debatable. The primary means by which Nigerians access the Internet is through cybercafés and Internet centers, home and personal access is very low at this point. Also, mobile phones are more ubiquitous than computers (60 million mobile users with an average of 2 mobile handsets per user), hence if any Nigerian hacker wants to develop a web property that would become world class, he has to take into cognizance the mobile phone and target his application to both the web and the mobile phone platforms.
3. Essential Services: In Nigeria, about 70% of the population lives below the poverty line i.e. $1 per day, which means that money is scare and the people are very poor, hence any would be developer hoping to go world class should develop “essential” web properties i.e. web applications that add value to the lives of the average Nigerian. Probably along the line of the 3 basic needs of man i.e. food, clothing and shelter. Take for example, creating a local search engine that would give information about cheap and quality housing facilities or price information about food items to local farmers via sms messages, useful and ultra targeted news and information to people via sms messages. I believe such a web property would quickly reach critical mass because it adds immediate value to people’s lives.

Ehigie (Pystar) Aito

Why are Nigerian Hackers So Smart?

                The $1 million question is why are Nigerian hackers so smart? The number of hackers/programmers/geeks in Nigeria is increasing by the day. And a vibrant but small community is being brought to life as was evidenced in the recent Barcamp Nigeria, held in Lagos, Nigeria.

                But my main grouse with the hacking community in Nigeria is that it seems to lack any trace of innovation or creativity. Does Nigeria need another “Facebook” ala “Naijapals”, “legwork”, or “Craigslist” ala “Nairalist”, or “Social book marking site” ala “sturvs” ? One might argue that these are localized versions of these sites which strive to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the average Nigeria, but I disagree.

                There are a lot of problems in Nigeria that can be solved with the use of technology, rather than wasting man hours and energy cloning popular sites and infringing on IP rights of the owners. Problems like:

1. Monitoring of governments spending, and delivery of democratic dividends
2. Unbiased and uncensored news reporting
3.  Educating rural/poor children
4. Banking facilities for poor/illiterate people

I know that the average Nigerian hacker faces a myriad of challenges, like poor power supply, Internet access, security, VC capital and basic infrastructure like housing, good roads etc which are taken for granted in developed countries. But with these challenges would it not be worthwhile to create stuff that would benefit the hacker himself and the country at large Instead of cloning “Facebook” which adds little or no value to the average Nigerian?

This is a call to arms to the Nigerian hacker to use technology to change the dire situation of the country that he has found himself in.

Aito (Pystar) Ehigie