Perspective- After years of sparse rain, the floodgates opened
- Impact of mainstreaming and commodification of cyber cafe services
- The role of the cyber cafe: Assisted entry ramp onto the information superhighway to use a cliche
- Estimating price in unexplored and untapped markets
- Mobile phones and China: Two concurrent factors of global urbanization of rural African market towns.
Category Archives: Rural
Pondering a new prepaid research focus
Ever since I completed the first Prepaid Economy study which looked at how those on irregular income streams managed their household finances – focusing on rural Philippines and India – I’ve been curious about rural Kenya. I’ve long wanted to … Continue reading
Reflecting on managing retail at the BoP
When I think about my time in the Filipino village last year, the most significant learnings from the field are the ones I never really wrote about or pondered deeply at that time. They were too specific to retail, I … Continue reading
Core values: business models meant to serve the BoP
(Republished from old Perspective 2.0 blog March 10th 2009) The biggest shock for me in the Phillippines was learning that airtime minutes purchased on a prepaid plan came with an expiry date. The smaller the amount the faster the expiration. … Continue reading
Prepaid pricing plans and the financially savvy BoP buyer: A discussion
Rural grocery shop, South Africa January 2008 While putting together my post on demanding BoP customers today, I came across this snippet from an article titled "Getting to know the sophisticated prepaid user" from The Philippines (one of the field … Continue reading
Traditional moneylending – informal, flexible, trust based and changing fast
Sawai Madhopur, December 30th 2008 As Microfinance Grows in India, So Do Its Rivals is the title of a recent WSJ article by Ketaki Gokhale which begins so, The practice of making tiny loans to poor people, or microfinance, was … Continue reading
Synthesis of the Prepaid Economy Project
The impetus for the Prepaid Economy project came from field observations during other projects which focused on the design and development of products and services for those at the BoP. It was noted that the majority of the BoP lived … Continue reading
Posted in Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Economy, Expenses, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, Rural, Savings, Strategy, User research, Value
Seasonality and its influence on rural BoP household financial management
Fallow field, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan India January 2009 I first noticed the influence of seasonality on income halfway during the Indian fieldwork. On one hand, its but natural that the seasons are linked to a farmer's cash flow, dependent as … Continue reading
Observations: Rural BoP and the cash economy
Investment or Independence? Photo Credit: Goverdhan Meena Across the board, the particular characteristic that most stood out during my conversations with the rural populace in India and The Philippines, as well as prior experiences elsewhere, was their … Continue reading
Some observed behaviour patterns in rural BoP households
Collage by Dave Tait Across the regions, we saw patterns of financial behaviour (download PDF) that echoed similarities of intent and goals. For example, at peak times such as the post harvest season, wealth was often stored in the form … Continue reading
Some thoughts on community based models for sharing costs
We found that the key factor that makes 'prepaid' payment plans (whether its for electricity, mobile phones, water etc) so attractive to the BoP customer, in the context of their own behaviour patterns regarding the management of their personal finances. … Continue reading
