Nairobi the next Palo Alto?

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mancombseepgood

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http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/49685

Why SA is lagging.... We have Ivy.

Google plans to hire more people in Nairobi and is recruiting staff in half a dozen other African cities. In Nairobi, Google chose a veteran of the city’s Internet-access industry to lead its office. The company assigned two Americans here; like the presidential candidate Barack Obama, each is the child of a Kenyan and an American.

The company’s presence has raised ambitions. “When I interview people for jobs in this office,” explains Chris Kiagiri, a Google technology officer in Nairobi, “I ask them, ‘What would you like to see Google do in this market that it has not attempted anywhere else in the world?’”

“A lot of people assume Google is trying to replicate in Africa what it has done elsewhere,” adds Mr. Kiagiri, who transferred last year from Google’s head office in California. “Sure, we want to bring existing products into this market. But we also want to organize information locally in a way we haven’t done elsewhere.”
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Doubtful that Nairobi is the next Palo Alto.....

But having Google based there is interesting.. I would have thought they would chose a city in SA to have their HO....
 
ToxicBunny said:
Doubtful that Nairobi is the next Palo Alto.....

But having Google based there is interesting.. I would have thought they would chose a city in SA to have their HO....
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heh... you don't know Kenya. There is so much innovation under difficult circumstances coming from Kenya right now. They have had ADSL2 for ages, they pay little for internal mobile communications, the only thing they really lack to get them up to speed is the international bandwidth which is going to change when Seacom lands. You will see a very different East Africa from 2010 imo and our Guavamint will be looking very doff when they overtake us on the technology front. They are already a preferred call center destination.

Remember - it's not about numbers, its about direction... if you are not moving forward, you are losing ground. SA has been doing that consistently in the ICT sector for some time relative to some neighbours.

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insight-top.pag?Src=RSS&docid=126905682

The Kenyan government has thrown its weight behind the ICT sector as a key driver for economic growth. In line with this strategy is the government's aim to grow both the domestic and offshore call centre markets.

The government intends to create 30 000 seats and 100 000 or more indirect jobs in this market by 2012. The market currently has 20 call centres and 5 000 agents and is estimated to be worth US$5 million. Frost & Sullivan expects the market to show excellent reach to grow to 114 000 agents, 1 634 call centres and to be worth US$19.3 million by 2013.

Although it is still in its introductory stages, Kenya's market will become one of the larger call centre markets in Africa. The key success factors for a call centre market are the availability of world class telecommunications infrastructure, a large skills pool and strong cost competitiveness. Kenya is implementing strategies to meet all of these requirements. Coupled with strong government support and intense marketing strategy, this will ensure that the domestic and offshore call centre market will emerge as a noteworthy competitor to established markets such as South Africa and Mauritius.
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