High costs hinder Kenyans' mobile internet usage

High internet prices and low speeds are slowing down mobile internet use in Kenya, reducing the growth of e-commerce, a new market research shows.

In their latest research findings titled Digital Life, the market research firm TNS-RMS found that above 70 per cent of the 5000 Kenyan interviewed preferred to do their entire internet surfing on their mobile phones but they were hindered by high prices and low speeds.

“This is slowing down the use of the mobile phones as a business platform where businesses can promote their products and carryout online transactions,” said Mr Eric Reingewertz the chief executive of TNS-RMS

Increased use of mobile phones for internet surfing has been aided by the drop of mobile phone prices seen in the last few years. Mobile phones are also easy to carry around than other devices. 

More than half of the internet users in Kenya visited Facebook compared to other internet sites such as Twitter and Google according to the research designed to help businesses get maximum impact from advertising.

About 56 per cent of internet users in Kenya preferred to visit Facebook daily as compared to 21 per cent that visited Google and 7 per cent on twitter.

The research, which was carried-out in both urban and rural areas, also showed that internet users use these websites to research brands and around half of them would like to purchase products through social networks.

The increased penetration of smartphones in the Kenyan is also expected to boost the consumption of internet, giving brand owners more room to increase their visibility.

The research showed in contrast to the global internet use that social media was also more relevant than emails in Kenya.

“Companies designing their digital strategies need to know that young people use mobile internet more compared to adults,” said Mr Reingewertz 

He said Kenyans turned to their mobile phones to confirm brand advertisements they had seen on TV. More than 30 per cent of the internet users went to mobile phones while 19 used computers to do so.

Mr Reingewertz said that lack of clear regulations governing online business and consumer protection were hindering a major take off of line businesses.

There were an estimated 14.3 million internet users at the end of the last quarter of 2011 compared to 12.5 million users reported in the previous quarter.

Mobile penetration was recorded at 67.2 per 100 inhabitants against 64.2 per 100 inhabitants in the previous quarter according to data from the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

Half of the internet consumers however tended to trust what other people said about various brands than what the brand owners said about themselves and also believed that posting brands online is an effective way of influencing companies.

Source: Business Daily