Happy Monday!
I hope your week is off to a great start! This week I am sharing a couple of interesting reports one on the gender gap in mobile usage and the other on e-wallets in Asia. Additionally, ICTWorks is highlighing a seed funding opportunity worth $25,000USD for startups in the Global South.
My market research team at Glean has just started the process of conducting research on digital trends and behaviors in Phnom Penh. Our aim with this is to help share our learnings on what products and services digital users are interested in. It should be useful for anyone working on mobile related products or services in Cambodia. Our first report will be live next month, but if you’d like to get it sent directly to you, please send me an email at: jesse@glean.net.
As always, please let me know if you have anything you’d like me to share with this community.
Have a great week!
Jesse
When talking to technology practitioners one area I often hear not getting addressed anymore is radio. As we move to smartphones and mobile data, many orginizations are abandoning their radio funding and programming. This article from Equal Access International highlights one of their radio prgrams in Nepal helping women speak up about services promised to them by their goverment leaders.
If you’re interested in the startup world Paul Graham is a name you should know. Among the many things he’s know for, he is the original founder of YCombinator, one of the first and arguallby one of the most prominate startup accelorators in the US. His essays dive deep into the mindset of founders, busienss models, and work. His most recent essay on how to work hard is a must read!
GSMA has released their 2021 Mobile Gender Gap report: “Women’s access to mobile internet continues to increase across low- and middle-income countries with 112 million additional female users getting online in 2020. Despite this, the gender gap remains substantial. Women are 7% less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 15% less likely to use mobile internet. There are still 234 million fewer women than men accessing mobile internet.”
More interesting research about mobile wallets in Asia. It look like Asia will lead the e-wallets space globally as increasing usage of the payment option in Southeast Asia is set to offset stagnant growth in China, according to a research report by Boku, a London-based fintech firm.
ICT Works is highlighting another great funding opportuntiy for any startups working in the Global South: “The Global South COVID-19 Digital Innovation Challenge will identify scalable innovative digital solutions that will enable communities from the Global South to deal with the cascading effects of the pandemic – across governance, economic and social sectors, and wellbeing.”