Word: makatiani
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2001-2001
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Africa Online began life in 1991 when Makatiani and a few Kenyan friends studying at Boston's M.I.T. built an online mailing list "so we could tell each other when we were going for dinner." Within a year more than 2,000 Kenyans around the world were mailing each other and receiving news from Kenya via a computer bought with donations from appreciative mailing list users. After finishing a degree in electrical engineering, Makatiani worked in software and as a consultant to a U.S. telecom company before a friend suggested he should turn the mailing list into a business...
...that there's no point concentrating on any single part of the industry. To succeed, companies have to build both the infrastructure that makes access possible and the online services that make it attractive. "In Europe and the U.S. you can choose a niche and sell that niche," says Makatiani. "In Africa you have to be more of a portfolio company and choose three of four niches that complement each other...
...keep them coming back, Africa Online is hiring a team of journalists and designers to build what Makatiani says will be "the African portal." Last August the company announced an alliance with Barclays Africa, a bank operating in nine countries across the continent, to build and market Internet centers in major cities, and eventually offer Internet banking...
...Still, the more his firm succeeds, the more likely it is that Makatiani will begin to face serious competition. South African Internet giant M-Web, already the biggest isp in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, is looking to move into countries farther north, including Nigeria. As African countries deregulate their telecom industries, large international firms are also likely to move in. "It's going to be a lot tougher," says M-Web's chief operating officer, Andrew Milne. "The introduction of something like wireless connections to Africa will change the landscape overnight...
...spite of those concerns, Makatiani is convinced that the new economy is spreading to Africa and he wants to be the person to tap that potential. He believes that someday African entrepreneurs will use Africa Online to create virtual offices from which they can e-mail, store private documents in safe files and do their banking. "When you start looking at 800 million people and start looking at one continent rather than separate countries, you start getting extremely excited," says an animated Makatiani, jumping up from his office sofa. "You say to yourself, ?You know, I can do what Bill...