Hi Ali,

I also think one of the reasons Safaricom enjoys its position is its
willingness to engage despite the criticism it receives, in as much as
we feel sorry for the other operators they hardly engage with
stakeholders. In short Safaricom seems to have public interest at the
core of its strategy which might not be the case with other local
Telcos or tech giants.

Best Regards

On 2/26/18, Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers

Here’s an interesting long read on the implications of Technology enabled

Monopolies.

The argument for and against the thesis that only market forces can check

the monopolistic behaviors of the Tech Giants is well articulated in this NY

Times article.

The argument goes like:-

A combination of Activists (Listers, I hope you are listening and reading

😀), Anti-Trust Busters, Competitors and the cautious actions of so called

Monopolists when the spotlight hits them, is largely responsible for

ensuring that consumers and the markets operate honestly, responsibly and

with the profit motive in mind.

Couldn’t help me thinking whether this combination is partly responsible for

the New Safaricom we are seeing today.  A company that is arguably larger

than life in Kenya and who in the recent past has been accused of the same

behaviors that the Tech Giants are allegedly guilty of.

Safaricom is definitely a better company than it was just a few years

before. They have embraced the ecosystem, released M-Pesa APIs on Github

(Yes!), funds startups in the Tech Ecosystem through its Spark Fund and is

generally easier to work with.

Here’s an excerpt to the story:-

The implication is clear enough: Google and the other tech titans understand

that the landscape is shifting. They realize that their halos have become

tarnished, that the arguments they once invoked as a digital exception to

American economic history — that the internet economy is uniquely

self-correcting, because competition is only a click away — no longer hold

as much weight. “When you get as big as Google, you become so powerful that

the market bends around you,” ...

Read on:-

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against-google.html

@Walu, we can meet half way on our arguments on this issue. :-)

Regards

Ali Hussein

Principal

Hussein & Associates

+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a

habit."  ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

--
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254733206359
Skype: barrack.otieno
PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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