My friend Mbwana told me this at dinner the other night. \u00a0We were at his favorite Indian restaurant in Nairobi, and I was lamenting the fact that the mobile lending space was getting crowded with new entrants, all who are using android apps. \u00a0Our product uses USSD exclusively, which means you have to dial a shortcode to get to the menu. \u00a0It doesn’t look great, and it’s a pretty poor user experience, comparatively. \u00a0But Mbwana told me that “USSD is like email” for emerging markets market. \u00a0It clicked that our product was in fact better placed than any android app could be. \u00a0 USSD is like email in Kenya because USSD is ubiquitous. \u00a0People have to use USSD on a day to day basis. \u00a0They use it to send Mpesa, they use it to buy their data, voice and sms bundles, and they use it access dozens of other products on their mobile phones. \u00a0Much like email, people don’t necessarily enjoy using it, but because they’ve been using it so long, it’s an accepted experience that they put up with. \u00a0What’s more, our product (credit) works particularly well on USSD. \u00a0It’s a linear experience that doesn’t require the user to navigate complicated menus. \u00a0It’s not a game, its a step by step process. \u00a0That lends it self well to credit products. \u00a0(excuse the pun) Email is still used across the world, and will continue to be used for a long time. \u00a0I think USSD will be the same. \u00a0People are familiar with it, and it works well. \u00a0So don’t assume that because your product is running the latest tech, all the users will flock to it. \u00a0It will follow the familiar bell curve of adoption, and right now USSD is firmly embedded with the majority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My friend Mbwana told me this at dinner the other night. \u00a0We were at his favorite Indian restaurant in Nairobi, and I was lamenting the fact that the mobile lending space was getting crowded with new entrants, all who are using android apps. \u00a0Our product uses USSD exclusively, which means you have to dial a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fintech"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jongore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}