Mobile phone technologies for Thailand's rural poor
By Jon Fernquest
Bangkok
Post tech reporter Don Sambandaraksa visited Pakistan last week to
attend conferences on using mobile phone technologies to help
the rural poor. The articles include:
1. Mobile phones to help those at the bottom of the pyramid
2. Mobile social networking at the bottom of the pyramid (See article below)
3. Mobile phones for government (m-government) in India
4. Mobile phone solutions to poverty forum
5. Mobile phone bandwidth lessons from Pakistan
Here is the vocabulary:
bottom of the pyramid -
the
largest but poorest socio-economic group about four billion people
worldwide, a market with great potential of its own according to one
important book (See Wikipedia)
social networking - computer systems that link people together into communities of shared interest (See Wikipedia)
mgovernment - extension of egovernment to mobile phones (See Wikipedia)
egovernment - using computer and networking technology to make interaction between the government and citizens of a country as well as businesses easier (See Wikipedia)
bandwidth - the amount of information that can be sent over a network connection or over a phone connection
social networking - computer systems that link people together into communities of shared interest (See Wikipedia)
mgovernment - extension of egovernment to mobile phones (See Wikipedia)
egovernment - using computer and networking technology to make interaction between the government and citizens of a country as well as businesses easier (See Wikipedia)
bandwidth - the amount of information that can be sent over a network connection or over a phone connection
Tech News
SOCIAL NETWORKING
MyGamma launched in Thailand
12/05/2010Don Sambandaraksa
ISLAMABAD : Assistant Professor Dr Puree Sirasoonthorn from Thammasat University's faculty of economics spoke of her research on mobile social networking at the bottom of the pyramid. MyGamma, a mobile social networking community, is run by a Singapore company called Buzz City. It has 4-5 million users worldwide and entered Thailand in 2005 to focus on those in the lower to middle income groups and is accessible through all the major Thai telcos. In Thailand, MyGamma has 200,000 users as of July 2009.
launched
- began, started เริ่ม, เริ่มต้นดำเนินการ
faculty - a group of departments in a college which specialize in a particular subject or group of subjects คณะ
community - a group of people who share something something (example: live in same place, have same interests and talk to each other)
mobile - can be used on a phone
mobile social networking community - a group of people who do social networking using their mobile phone
focus - the main thing it is concerned with ให้ความสำคัญ
income - money that people receive from work or some other source, used for household consumption and savings
middle income groups - not rich and not poor, people whose income puts them in the middle of a society economically
accessible - can be used by
faculty - a group of departments in a college which specialize in a particular subject or group of subjects คณะ
community - a group of people who share something something (example: live in same place, have same interests and talk to each other)
mobile - can be used on a phone
mobile social networking community - a group of people who do social networking using their mobile phone
focus - the main thing it is concerned with ให้ความสำคัญ
income - money that people receive from work or some other source, used for household consumption and savings
middle income groups - not rich and not poor, people whose income puts them in the middle of a society economically
accessible - can be used by
Buzz City has some limited success in selling content. The revenue sharing model means the mobile operator gets the major part of any revenue received, between 40 to 50 percent. This has not worked well as they have to compete with the operator's own content portals.
The platform has since shifted its revenue model to mobile advertising. Buzz City takes 30 percent revenue from external ads and 90 percent of its own advertisements. Here the problem is that despite the number of eyeballs the buyers of media, the advertising agencies, do not think of mobile as a major platform. This is in contrast to India where advertising agencies regularly tell their clients to buy mobile advertising space.
content
- the subject, ideas, or story that a piece of writing or a radio or
television programme deals with เนื้อหา,สาระ
revenue - income from taxes or business activities รายได้
mobile operator - a company that runs a mobile phone network and phone service in a country (See Wikipedia)
portal, web portal - a website providing an entry point to the web, providing services such as search engine, email, news, stock prices, information, and entertainment (See Wikipedia)
content portal - website that is an entry point into the web that also provides you with news and other interesting articles, videos and photos
platform, computing platform - a combination of software and hardware used to run a computer system, for example a computer gaming platform, a mobile phone platform, an operating system platform, or software platform (See Wikipedia)
media - news and entertainment outlets such as newspapers, TV stations, radio, and magazines สื่อ
contrast - a difference between two things when you compare them ความแตกต่าง
clients - (formal) customer ลูกค้า
advertising space - advertising in some media in which pictures and text can be shown (newspaper, webpage, magazine, billboard, etc)
revenue - income from taxes or business activities รายได้
mobile operator - a company that runs a mobile phone network and phone service in a country (See Wikipedia)
portal, web portal - a website providing an entry point to the web, providing services such as search engine, email, news, stock prices, information, and entertainment (See Wikipedia)
content portal - website that is an entry point into the web that also provides you with news and other interesting articles, videos and photos
platform, computing platform - a combination of software and hardware used to run a computer system, for example a computer gaming platform, a mobile phone platform, an operating system platform, or software platform (See Wikipedia)
media - news and entertainment outlets such as newspapers, TV stations, radio, and magazines สื่อ
contrast - a difference between two things when you compare them ความแตกต่าง
clients - (formal) customer ลูกค้า
advertising space - advertising in some media in which pictures and text can be shown (newspaper, webpage, magazine, billboard, etc)
The platform allows advertisers to target advertising campaigns with granularity down to the handset model and network.
Will next year be the year of the mobile ad? No. It will still be very, very small compared to TV and radio and advertising agencies are still not taking mobile advertisement seriously. However, what is happening is that the SME who do not have huge amounts of advertisement budget are looking to highly targeted mobile advertisements for things such as contact lenses, massage chairs and mobile accessories.
advertisers
target Y - trying to get advertisements seen and read by
group Y
campaigns - a long series of events staged to achieve a goal or to promote something (for example, an "anti-smoking campaign")
granularity -
handset - the part of a phone that you hold in your hand and speak into
model - a particular type of product with certain features that a company made, usually identified by a number
network - a large system of connected parts, organisations, people, etc. เครือข่าย
budget - the amounts of money that an organisation has available to spend on different things during a period งบประมาณ (See Wikipedia)
targeted - aimed at a particular person or group that you oppose ตกเป็นเป้า
contact lenses - a small lense put directly on the eye so can't noticed as glasses are (See Wikipedia)
massage chairs - a chair with a machine inside that moves up and down and gives you a massage (See Wikipedia)
accessories - things that you add on to another thing to make it more useful or nice looking (examples: extra equipment used with mobile phone or digital camera, extra items that go with clothes such as belts or a bag)
campaigns - a long series of events staged to achieve a goal or to promote something (for example, an "anti-smoking campaign")
granularity -
handset - the part of a phone that you hold in your hand and speak into
model - a particular type of product with certain features that a company made, usually identified by a number
network - a large system of connected parts, organisations, people, etc. เครือข่าย
budget - the amounts of money that an organisation has available to spend on different things during a period งบประมาณ (See Wikipedia)
targeted - aimed at a particular person or group that you oppose ตกเป็นเป้า
contact lenses - a small lense put directly on the eye so can't noticed as glasses are (See Wikipedia)
massage chairs - a chair with a machine inside that moves up and down and gives you a massage (See Wikipedia)
accessories - things that you add on to another thing to make it more useful or nice looking (examples: extra equipment used with mobile phone or digital camera, extra items that go with clothes such as belts or a bag)
(Source: Tech News, SOCIAL NETWORKING, MyGamma launched in Thailand, 12/05/2010, Don Sambandaraksa, link)
