Mobile commerce in rural South Africa — Proof of concept of mobile solutions for the next billion mobile consumers

Abstract

The biggest change in the mobile market in the coming years will not happen at the top consumer level where high end mobile devices will be equipped with the latest multimedia tools but at the untapped market of about one billion people in the mid segment of the world economic pyramid whose potential to become profitable telecom customers has been underestimated and misunderstood.In the Rural Living Lab (RLL) in Sekhukhune, South Africa, the C@R research project is developing mobile solutions that support Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to cope with business challenges in emerging economies. The first prototype already has proven its viability and appropriateness in the real world use case -Mobile Procurement.Many important lessons learned and valuable outcomes have been derived which will significantly influence the further development of mobile solutions for the next billion mobile subscribers.

Mobile training in micro business: Design science research for frugal innovation

“…Related grassroots-level projects include online shopping [9], [10], mobile procurement [11], [12], mAgriculture [13], business education [14], financial literacy applications [15], and educational applications [14]. One project used DSR to design mobile bookkeeping for Tanzanian street vendors [16].…”

Bookkeeping for Informal Workers: Co-creating with Street Traders

“…Examples include online shopping [12,13], mobile procurement [14,15], applications for small scale farmers [16,17], records keeping, goal setting and planning applications [18,19], business education applications [20], financial literacy applications [21], tools for illiterate micro businesses [13], and educational applications for women entrepreneurs [20]. One study [18] proposes valuable ideas to allow flexible adjustment of applications to suit the needs of different contexts and informal worker groups.…”

Technical ICTD - A User Centered Lifecycle

“…The results presented in this paper have been produced during a three year research project in the ICTD context called Collaboration@Rural (C@R) [10]. The focus of C@R was on a procurement use case supporting small shop owners in rural South Africa with only basic mobile phones and erratic network access [11]. The overall framework in which the research took place was the Sekhukhune Rural Living Lab (RLL).…”