Comments on: The mobile web: an untapped opportunity for publishers http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19 Thoughts on new media Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:46:10 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Laura Lumingu http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-468 Laura Lumingu Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:41:28 +0000 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19#comment-468 Hi Rick, I'm a last year student of Media/ Communications Sciences of the Free University of Brussels. I'm doing my thesis on 'the offer and demand for mobile Internet in Africa' My case-study will be South Africa, because I'm doing my internship in the Edge Institute in Capetown later on this year. I would like to say that your blog helped me to start writing (which I personally think is the most difficult part) Especially your view on the different strategies of telcom operators gave me a lot of inspiration. If you have got some tips on interesting literature I could read and which could help me form a theoretical framework, I'm all ears! With kind regards, Laura Hi Rick,

I’m a last year student of Media/ Communications Sciences of the Free University of Brussels. I’m doing my thesis on ‘the offer and demand for mobile Internet in Africa’ My case-study will be South Africa, because I’m doing my internship in the Edge Institute in Capetown later on this year.

I would like to say that your blog helped me to start writing (which I personally think is the most difficult part) Especially your view on the different strategies of telcom operators gave me a lot of inspiration.

If you have got some tips on interesting literature I could read and which could help me form a theoretical framework, I’m all ears!

With kind regards,

Laura

]]> By: sandra407 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-333 sandra407 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:55:39 +0000 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19#comment-333 Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post... nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R. Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

]]> By: Sivhute Katamba http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-265 Sivhute Katamba Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:21:39 +0000 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19#comment-265 Hi Rick! me and my partners has been enjoying reading your blog.(are you a twin to steveouting?ha,ha,ha,)your blog is becoming popular,we realy enjoy your critical thinking when it come to the importance of mobile web,not only in africa but globaly. Hi Rick!
me and my partners has been enjoying reading your blog.(are you a twin to steveouting?ha,ha,ha,)your blog is becoming popular,we realy enjoy your critical thinking when it come to the importance of mobile web,not only in africa but globaly.

]]> By: Rich http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-11 Rich Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:08:48 +0000 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19#comment-11 Thanks for the article Rick, and as a new entrant to the mobile advertising/mobile media/mobile publishing space I think I have an answer to your question "why has the South African online publishing industry not made any significant in-roads in the mobile web?" - my opinion is that the big players have grossly underestimated the market and just dont know exactly how massive the uptake of the mobile web is in SA and the rest of Africa. We have realised this recently with the launch of our Free SMS service onto the mobile web (mahalasms.mobi), previously we only had this on the "normal" web and had varied success. Since going mobile the uptake has been massive and we have actually had to go back to the drawing board to make sure that we can actually cover all our costs and check that our business plan is sound because of the massive amount of traffic! We had looked at the statistics from Admob and Buzzcity ( the 2 big mobile advertising players ) and read the many newsletters from Admob about Africa being its biggest marketblah blah blah, but until we actually switched on our mobile site we didnt really take all of these stats seriously. I think this is the problem with the big publishers, they are not quite sure if its all worth it. And to be brutally honest I also think that they are a bit out of touch with there target market, i.e. a big CEO of a online publisher has internet access at home, office, everywhere, they probably dont understand how or why anyone would want to browse the web from there phone, problem is not everyone is a big CEO and in fact most of the population in SA and Africa dont even have 2 cents to rub together, so they will find the cheapest, easiest way of getting there information! Anyways thats just my opinion and ramble of thoughts! Rich Thanks for the article Rick, and as a new entrant to the mobile advertising/mobile media/mobile publishing space I think I have an answer to your question “why has the South African online publishing industry not made any significant in-roads in the mobile web?” – my opinion is that the big players have grossly underestimated the market and just dont know exactly how massive the uptake of the mobile web is in SA and the rest of Africa. We have realised this recently with the launch of our Free SMS service onto the mobile web (mahalasms.mobi), previously we only had this on the “normal” web and had varied success. Since going mobile the uptake has been massive and we have actually had to go back to the drawing board to make sure that we can actually cover all our costs and check that our business plan is sound because of the massive amount of traffic! We had looked at the statistics from Admob and Buzzcity ( the 2 big mobile advertising players ) and read the many newsletters from Admob about Africa being its biggest marketblah blah blah, but until we actually switched on our mobile site we didnt really take all of these stats seriously. I think this is the problem with the big publishers, they are not quite sure if its all worth it. And to be brutally honest I also think that they are a bit out of touch with there target market, i.e. a big CEO of a online publisher has internet access at home, office, everywhere, they probably dont understand how or why anyone would want to browse the web from there phone, problem is not everyone is a big CEO and in fact most of the population in SA and Africa dont even have 2 cents to rub together, so they will find the cheapest, easiest way of getting there information!
Anyways thats just my opinion and ramble of thoughts!
Rich

]]> By: work environments | Digg hot tags http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19&cpage=1#comment-10 work environments | Digg hot tags Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:00:14 +0000 http://www.rickjoubert.com/?p=19#comment-10 [...] Vote The mobile web: an untapped opportunity for publishers [...] [...] Vote The mobile web: an untapped opportunity for publishers [...]

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