Category Archives: Ideas

Will The Real Nigerian Mobile Money Companies Please Stand Up?

 

I am just waking up after a very short sleep and I have a few minutes before preparing to attend  The Future Awards Symposium. So this has to be brief and i hope it is as articulate I want it to be.

Here is the issue, I do not get Mobile Money as it is being attempted in Nigeria. The companies I have heard of seem to be more interested in in painting BRT buses and large billboards rather than being Mobile Money companies.

However, this post is not about my disappointment with the “Mobile Money” companies but rather an opportunity for them. Any real/serious Mobile Money company in Nigeria will salivate at this

Crowd funding and A grand opportunity.

Crowd funding is is one of the few killer applications that makes a business case for Mobile Money and there is a grand opportunity waiting to be taken.

There is a young man called Oke who needs some money to save his legs and his life. (If you get mind, here is the link to his story) The fact of the matter is the money he needs (N5million) can be raised in a single day if there was an easy way to send money to him. At the moment, Twitter is virtually saying “shut up and take my money”. But the true problem for the young man is HOW? The sad truth of the matter is this, 95% of the people absolutely willing to give 1000 or more will not because going to deposit money in a bank account is a really long thing. That is the absolute reality.

If only there was a way we could send money without the hassle of going to a bank, queuing, etc etc… Wait!! that is what the entire premise of Mobile Money is all about. This is the perfect opportunity to prove and show how this thing works! It is one thing to go back slapping yourselves at Mobile Money conferences around the world and claiming to be the next M-Pesa and another to actually do stuff.

What Serious Mobile Money companies should do NOW!

It is a no brainier for a Mobile Money company to provide matching funding for money raised for Oke through their platform. You will be committing bird genocide with a single stone (showing how/that your stuff really work, doing good, awesome PR, acquiring real users, jump starting the industry, having a very relevant case study, etcetc gbogbotigbo).

So MTN, Paga, VCash, PoketMoni, GLO, VTN, Airtel, what are you guys really waiting for. Are you guys real? Can you already grab this opportunity with both hands?

When CCHUB tried to raise money for a roofing project at the police barracks in Yaba, you guys failed, but the implication was a few wet mattresses. However, this time is someones life. Do the right thing for Oke and yourselves.

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

Idea: A Killer App For The Tablet Computer

As part of my idea post series, I present to you what I think will be a killer app for the tablet.

A YouTube of how to cook anything.

The size and form factor of tablet computers make them an ideal kitchen companion. You can hang it on the wall or kitchen table and touch your life away.

How does this differ from Jamie Oliver’s cooking app?

When I started and abandoned this post almost a year ago (laziness is a bad thing), I had not heard of the Jamie Oliver app. But the main difference between this and a Jamie Oliver App will be the ability for anyone to learn from anyone. Because your mums pudding beats Jamie’s any day; that is the one I want to learn. So this like YouTube will be user generated. Of course the professionals will have their channels.

Why not just use YouTube?

There is something different about a curated community. Other than that, the interface will be built specially for this. Look at an initial mockup I designed below. Thirdly, elements like recipes will be entered in a data format that will allow for certain features.  So for instance, people could just enter the recipes they have at home and a filter of all the meals that can be made from those recipes will be displayed. Yes, you will be able to sort it by time it takes to cook.

 1. Home

 

People have started something like this, why would this take off now?

The ubiquity of smart phones with video camera and the increasing availability of broadband coupled with the tablet form factor.

 The million dollar question: how will this make money?

The size of the market is quite big almost everyone eats. Some revenue models I have thought of include:

  1. Affiliate: Imagine clicking the picture of a meal you would like to eat and order all the ingredients you need from TESCO or Wal-Mart.  Don’t worry, it does not need to be delivered but can be waiting for you at a local store. The stores will Pay Commission for it. Webvan would have been the PERFECT intermediary but they were 10 years early.
  2. Subscription: People could subscribe to premium Cooking Channels. Imagine you can access the same recipe that Oprah/Jamie Oliver is using for thanksgiving and it would cost 99p. His/Her followers will pay for it.
  3. Advertising:  Large food chains can have their branded channels where they show people how to cool meals using their special ingredients you buy from them: They will pay for it. I see companies like Sainsbury creating “the 5 pound family meal”

Social benefits:

People will begin to see cooking as fun. Meals can be rated according to how healthy they are, cost, etc. Jamie Oliver’s TED talk, and push for healthy eating alongside Michelle Obama’s drive to make American children start eating healthy will give this good press.

Maybe this is another way for Jamie Oliver to achieve his dream

Challenges:

This type of application would probably need some initial capital if it is to come out of the gates blazing. Lots of meals made available; otherwise it can/should be created gradually. It would require a different type of media player that would enable people to jump to various sections of the video. Maybe YouTube editing capabilities can be used for the MVP? More importantly, this type of app will be all about the community. Where lovers of food can come and discuss and compare dishes.

If it is so good, why am I not doing this?

I love a lot more things than cooking. It will take someone dedicated to cooking to make this fly.

When I was studying in the UK, I starved because I could not get around with making any real (Nigerian) dishes with the ingredients I saw in the mall. I ate sandwiches for the first two weeks. I was saved by discovering the African market and tutorials from some friends. (Thanks Thelma, Mariam and Tobe.)

So if you want to work on this idea, let me know and I can volunteer a few minutes giving you more details of things that were too many to put in this post.

One more thing:

This idea actually has (in concept) 10 of Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden principles of successful web apps.

 

Here is the HN discussion

 

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

A Sad Startup Idea :( $$$

  • What will be your last tweet after you die?
  • Do you want your Facebook still functioning after you are gone? Any last cheeky status update ? e.g “I can seeee yooou. hahahaha *ghost laugh*”
  • What happens to your blog? Do you want a final post to tell the world goodbye? What about your hosting? Do you want it to last forever?
  • What about your emails? Do you want your Family to go through them?. Any auto responders to those that email after you have taken leave of the earth?
  • Will you want to cancel any subscriptions?
  • The documents, agreements, and all the important stuff in the cloud (email, pictures, digital invoices, etc), how will those that need them get access?

I know people do not like thinking about death but times have changed and some things have not changed with it.  A lot of our valuables are in digital form and there is no succession plan I know of  that takes care of this stuff. I would like to have control over the thinks I have enumerated above after I have gone. I certainly do not want the hosting on this blog to die and the thousands of pictures I have in Picasa to be lost forever.

Now here is how money is made from this sad idea.

There should be a middle man you leave all these instructions with. Say an insurance company or a law firm that would carry out the instructions after you have gone.  You pay a premium  of $10/ year and you are sure your AwesomenessReminders subscription is cancelled when you do not need it anymore Smile.

 

 

This is the first in the series of my blogging about my ideas

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

Launching In 48 Hours

This weekend I am participating in Launch48. It is an all weekend event in which a web app idea is conceived and launced in 48hours. It is the best crash course for anyone who wants to understand what it takes to create the next Facebook. I have attended 4 Launch48 events since its inception over a year ago and it remains my favorite.

However, this event is different for me because after 4 events, 16months and 2 cities, my idea was finally among chosen to be worked on (more on that in a subsequent blogpost). It is exciting because in 48 hours my idea would be live. That’s cool.

Watch this space and the Launch48 blog as I update you on what’s happening.

My idea? FacebookTu.be