Calling the faithful to prayer - on the mobile!

Tuesday, 08 December 2009 10:49

In the majority of developing nations there is significant cultural importance attached to religious worship. While marketing to the devout may not be a mainstream approach for operators in the West, in developing countries such as Africa, Asia and Latin America mobile network operators are actively addressing this sizeable and potentially lucrative market segment. Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of mobile email and synchronisation vendor Synchronica examines this sometimes sensitive subject.

 In Uganda, for example, the pan-African operator MTN regularly sponsors workshops and seminars aimed at helping the country’s Muslims better understand Islamic values and the importance of key religious events such as Ramadan. In Nigeria, MTN offers customers Islamic and Christian ringtones, as well as Holy Bible and Qur'anic applications.

Similarly, a new mobile phone has been developed specifically for Muslims. It generates an automated reminder at each of the five daily prayer times, points worshippers in the direction of Mecca’s Kaaba shrine, and contains a complete version of the Qur'an available in both English and Arabic.

According to data recently obtained from the World Christian Database, approximately 400 million Africans – that’s 46% of the continent’s entire population - practise Christianity. It is here that Pentecostalism is rapidly growing, prompted by a contemporary approach to faith and worship.

In Ghana, Pentecostals have exceeded the combined strength of the established Catholic and Anglican churches. Likewise, the Economist noted that in Nairobi a Christian Revival headed by the American preacher T D Jakes was attended by one million people — that’s one in thirty Kenyans.

Pentecostalism in Africa is now considered big business, and increasingly central to this business is mobile technology – a powerful tool that is commonly embraced to extend fellowship.

The rise of mobile email in emerging regions

While the market for mobile email in the West is becoming saturated, mobile messaging in the developing world continues to grow apace. Here, where consumers are mostly reliant on Internet cafes, the mobile phone is fast becoming the preferred avenue to accessing digital content.

The availability of broadband has been hampered in the Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets by the high costs of rolling out fixed-line Internet access, and inadequate transmission infrastructure. And, while the growth of landlines in the Middle East and Africa has stagnated, it is the world’s fastest-growing market for mobile penetration. According to research firm Delta Partners, mobile data revenues in the region will reach US$6 billion by 2011, and three quarters of its broadband will be delivered wirelessly.

In areas where legacy infrastructure is lacking, the mobile phone has literally become the communications lifeline. In these regions, new customers continue to sign up to mobile services in droves, and an innovative collection of Value Added Services is providing a unique selling point to those operators that do not wish to compete on tariffs alone.

Mobile email connects and extends religious communities

Today, technology plays an increasing role in developing regions to connect and extend religious communities. Mobile messaging is actively used by religious organisations to enable one-to-many and one-to-one communication about religious topics.

At Nigeria’s Christ Embassy, for example, worshippers are routinely encouraged to email prayer request, while members of the House on the Rock check their mailboxes for the devotional newsletters sent frequently by their church.

The South African Rhema Ministry offers RSS feeds, allowing members to subscribe to church web feeds and updates, and those planning to attend evangelist Benny Hinn’s Fire Conference in East Africa, were prompted to send miracle appeals in advance, using Twitter.

Operators in emerging markets are discovering that offering solutions which cater to a broad range of subscriber segments – regardless of how abstract the segment might appear to be – pays significant dividends.

Acknowledging the faithful, as a market segment in the emerging regions, could prove very rewarding for operators indeed.

More info:

• www.synchronica.com 

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites