Time to update AmazonBay?
At the risk of confusing people and implying that AmazonBay is meant literally (which it isn’t!), following the commercial tie-up between eBay and Yahoo announced a few weeks ago, maybe I should make a YahooBay version. 
You know it is a world changing technology when:
I was catching up on some reading when I came across this article from the Economist on the growth of the mobile phone market in Afghanistan.
Regular readers will know that I view the mobile phone as the enabling technology for the four fifths of humanity not living in the developed world. (see here and here and here) It is difficult to imagine a more challenging business environment than Afghanistan and yet:
When the Taliban fell, there were just 20,000 telephone lines in the country and no means to phone abroad. Today there are 1.3m mobile phone users taking advantage of mobile coverage that stretches to many rural areas. Last month, delegates from across Afghanistan gathered in Kabul for a conference on information and communications technology to discuss, among other developments, the construction of a new optical-fibre voice-and-data network which will follow the ring road that girdles the country and finally connect it to the outside world.
…The arrival of mobile phones has had a far-reaching impact, not only on business, but also on the country’s social fabric. In Kabul, mobiles have revolutionised the previously minutely controlled contact between the sexes.
…But how big is the market? Mobiles are a lifestyle accessory aspired to by many Afghans and they can bring huge economic benefits to town and country alike. But the absence of reliable power supplies in all but a couple of cities will probably limit the take-up.
I think the problems will be solved. The tide is coming in and the fundamental human desire to communicate will continue to drive the adoption of these technologies in even the most troubled and challenged corners of the world. And with it will come fantastic opportunities for commerce as this vast pool of talent, demand and aspirations is connected to the rest of the world. In this context I don’t think it is overstating the case to say that people like Iqbal Quadir, founder of Grameen Phone are the modern day equivalents of Columbus, Cartier and Magellan, opening new frontiers and bringing the world closer together.
