Mobile market floods Africa

Thanks to an emerging class of social applications, farmers in Uganda have something in common with Madison Avenue advertisers: They both use their mobile phones to do business.

Non-profits like the Grameen Foundation and Kiwanja.net are pumping grant money into projects to bring SMS applications to the developing world. But the ultimate goal, says the Grameen Foundation’s David Edelstein, is to prove that there’s a market for mobile services in places like Southeast Asia and rural Africa.

With the number of mobile phone subscribers expected to reach 4.5 billion globally by 2012, and roughly two-thirds of those in developing countries by Edelstein’s count, there’s no shortage of subscribers. The challenge is showing that there is a reliable market, even in poverty-stricken parts of the world.

The full story is at Digital Media Buzz.