I totally agree that cyber cafes may not die any soon in the peri urban centres and rural areas. Despite the mobile Internet guys still need additional services that can only be available in digital villages/cyber cafes. An example is the SoftKenya Digital Village in Kenya which I and my friends recently initiated...people want to do research, primt, scan, laminate docs, apply for KRA pin online and others simply come to be helped to join facebook and open email accounts....there is still enormous potential in this field. The catch phrase is value adding, variety and innovation. And the fibre optic cables should be extended further deep into towns On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 9:35 PM, <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:

Robert, You are right. Cyber Cafes may die in Nairobi CBD area but in low income neighbourhoods and rural centers they are still relevant. Go to Korogocho and see what Altawon is doing. At Mukuru Kwa Njenga the Cyber Cafe there provides more than what we traditionally knew cyber cafes for. If our definition of Cyber Cafe is the same, then some digital villages in Kangundo, Malindi, Kioge, Tsiekuru etc are basically Cyber Cafes.

The value proposition for such centers is increasingly becoming viable with such new concepts as impact outsourcing (those who may be interested to see model impact outsourcing centers can check with me next month). A bit of field visit would enhance our discussion in this list.

Regards

Ndemo.

...

Hi,

I disagree with your assertion that cybercafes are closing down if anything they are mushrooming and in more seats that before, in the building where our offices are we used to have a single cyber on the 2nd floor in the past 12 months 2 have opened on the ground floor replacing a bookshop and a pharmacy each with over 30 stations.

The availability of mobile on the phone is actually a plus for the cyber business as it creates a more aware market who end up spending more time and money as they need to download staff, print, cd burn etc.

Unless you have an iPad the experience of browsing on your phone is still not as good as on a large 17" screen.

Finally, many of thus opening cybers today have a better understanding of the business than the me too crowd that used to run them before. Any cyber cafe that does not charge automatically for printing is doomed to close soon.

As more knowledgeable investors come into the cyber cafe business expect to see more of them coming up and with the right tools for monitoring and generating revenue such as protocol based billing. I visited a cyber in Rongai where billing was bandwidth based as they where using a Safaricom 3G connection.

Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

________________________________ From: Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.or.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 2 March, 2011 19:12:16 Subject: [kictanet] The Death of Cybercafes?

Listers

Just back from Ghana where I was impressed to see that cybercafes are still alive (e.g. BusyInternet)...as my experience in Kenya is that it's hard to find a functional cybercafe within easy reach with cutting edge services and programs (PDF etc)....most are closing down with Internet available on the mobile (with aggressive competition). So outside the office set-up and with minimal home connections...one has almost no options for innovation.

Is it a good thing that cybers are dying in Kenya and broadband is yet to reach homes? what needs to be done differently to inform our efforts on digital villages etc?

Edith

________________ Edith Ofwona Adera Senior Program Specialist ICT4D Program and Climate Change & Water Program International Development Research Centre | Centre de recherches pour le développement international Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa Tel: +254202713160 | Fax/Téléc: +254202711063 | Skype: edithadera eadera@idrc.or.ke | www.idrc.ca| www.crdi.ca

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