Mobile phone the new driver of Internet access

Government services offered online and growing mobile phone access will be the key drivers of mass internet adoption in the country, say industry experts and a national survey.

Statistics from the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) indicate that the country has 3.5 million Internet users, but data shows this figure could increase to 10 million users in the next two years, driven by mobile Internet.

These projections are backed by new findings from market research company Synovate, which shows that while Internet usage by social economic groups currently shows wide disparities, it portends remarkably strong growth throughout the country, largely driven by phone-based access.

Access to the Internet on mobile phone is growing at the expense of the public access route which is driving rural Internet penetration and usage, compared to urban areas.

Full membership

“Mobile phone looks set to be the new driver of Internet access as opposed to computers, thus the form of the hardware (mobile phone) is critical to the success of higher Internet penetration. This makes access to a mobile phone the key to full membership of the future society,” reads part of the Synovate report.

Phone based communication has overtaken face-to-face contact as a preferred mode of communication.

Because word of mouth spreads more over the phone than in face-to -face meetings, Internet users display a lower desire for the latter across every social category compared to non-users

Daily and weekly Internet usage has more than doubled in the last two years while monthly usage grew by 80 per cent, making it the fastest growing media, now with more than 3.5 million monthly users.

If the weekly Internet use is broken down on an urban versus rural basis, urban use grew from 22 per cent of respondents in 2007 to 30 per cent in 2009.

Rural use grew from four per cent to nine per cent over the same period.

The five top uses of the Internet range between 40-50 per cent of the sample users and were in descending order: entertainment; games and music; social networking and instant messaging; e-mails; general surfing and job search.

Apart from the social networks such as Facebook and YouTube and other sites such as BBC, Safaricom, CNN and the Nation which were identified as the most visited , another key driver is government services now offered via web based applications and can be assessed both through personal computers or mobile.

Some of these are accessing both the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results.

Others services are monitoring passport process online and applying for the Personal Identification Number (PIN) online.

This has not only increased Internet use but has also made it easier and faster for the public to get these vital information that would previously require endless physical and costly visits to government offices.

But unlike before when much growth was witnessed in urban areas, the Synovate report shows that growth has been slower in urban areas compared to rural areas that grew by 125 per cent in a span of two years

The lower income groups recorded much faster growth in Internet access.

But Internet penetration within middle class and below is still very low, making it the group with the highest growth potential.

The level of education and Internet usage are directly co-related, and as the country gets more educated, Internet usage will continue to grow rapidly.

On average, Internet users spend approximately 70 minutes on the Internet per visit.

This level of media use is close to the average time spent on television daily .

“The significance of these findings is that Kenya is both one of Africa’s largest mid-scale markets and is a bell-weather in terms of technology adoption. Crudely, what happens in Kenya will start to happen elsewhere.

And as the uptake of M-Money services shows, this is not simply an urban, well-educated, middle class phenomenon,” said analysts Russell Southwood of Balancing Act of Synovate’s report.

Mr Southwood said mass use starts when consumers start to create networking effects.

In other words, existing users start to draw in new users who do not want to be left out.

In Kenya, this is already beginning to happen.

Although the number of daily Internet users is smaller than the overall estimated total of 3.5 million, it is beginning to grow significantly and will continue to do so as access prices fall and local content offers become more varied.