The topline findings from the initial stage of the GSMA mWomen Research in India, Egypt, Papua New Guinea and Uganda were presented recently. It explored the Wants and Needs of BOP Women through a qualitative study.
Some of the insights of ‘mobile as a tool’ are below.
- Mobile use by BOP women seem to be driven by practical, utility-oriented needs such as family coordination and emergencies rather than the desire to socialize and ‘chat’. This is also seen when looking at perceived benefits in LIRNEasia’s teluse@BOP4 quantitative study. Both ability to act or contact others in an emergency and ability to maintain relationships with family and friends scored over 4 on a scale of 1-5 in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
- Radio proved to be important as a kill-time feature of the mobile handset, an indication that greater emphasis should be placed on entertainment and infotainment services for women in addition to important life-enhancing services such as mHealth, mAgri, mobile money, etc. Looking at LIRNEasia findings, we can see that 6% of Indian women who are mobile owners listen to the radio via the mobile. The numbers are relatively higher in Sri Lanka (13%) and Pakistan (11%).Whilst the numbers may seem low, it is one of the highest uses of mobiles after voice and SMS. Games have scored higher, surpassing radio in India (12%), Bangladesh (18%) and Pakistan (17%). Taking photos and videos is also popular amongst women in Bangladesh (12%), Sri Lanka (13%), and Thailand (18%).
- BOP women had limited knowledge of VAS, including limited use of SMS. Looking at LIRNEasia results amongst women who did not use SMS, 51% in Bangladesh and 72% in India did not know what SMS is. Confusion in using SMS and difficulty in typing also scored high.
Detailed regional insights are expected over the next few weeks whilst full details about this article can be found here.
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