Challenges in using mobile Internet

Inequalities in gender relations have restricted women’s use of mobile Internet and social media. In Jordan and Turkey, women may be harassed by men when they use Facebook and WhatsApp on their mobile phones. Others are not allowed to post photos, use their photo as a profile picture or even open Facebook accounts (GSMA Connected Women & Altai Consulting 2015). In Donner, Gitau and Marsden (2011), one participant was prevented from using a social media site by her husband, who was jealous that she would meet new people. In Myanmar, stories abound of mobile phone users who faced divorces due to extra-marital affairs conducted through Facebook or Viber or were deceived by people using false identities and photos. While only a few research respondents personally experienced these outcomes, some men thought that online flirting could break up their marriages (Zainudeen & Galpaya 2015). Such findings indicate another case of a common urban myth or moral panic related to a

new technology as the dissolution of marriages and relationships discussed in Marvin (1988) are also occurring in Myanmar. Interestingly, female mobile Internet users are more likely to be positive about the benefits of the Internet and pay little attention to their negative consequences. Yet, some may delete apps and profiles online in response to sexual harassment, thus losing the benefits of a new technology available to them free-of-charge, due to others’ behaviour. Users may also be unaware of security options available to them when using mobile Internet (Zainudeen & Galpaya 2015).

Women’s use of basic mobile handsets, poor literacy and lack of technical skills, the costs related to accessing the Internet via mobile phones, theft of Internet- enabled mobile phones, lack of perceived benefits and complexity of smart phones were found to be the main reasons for the low levels of mobile Internet use by women (Donner, Gitau & Marsden 2011; GSMA Connected Women & Altai Consulting 2015; Hoan, Chib & Mahalingham 2016; Qualcomm Wireless ReachTM, Vital Wave & GSMA 2014; Zainudeen & Galpaya 2015). Hence, Duncombe (2014) argues that upcoming technologies such as mobile Internet and apps contribute to the continuation of the digital divide because they are better suited to and adopted by early adopters.

3.3.2 Mobile money

Mobile money services are immensely popular in several developing countries. For instance, there are three million mobile money customers in the Philippines, two million in Kenya within its first year of introduction and about 450,000 in South Africa. Because of higher penetration of mobile phones in Africa, mobile money services have become ‘pocket-banks’ (Asongu 2015, p. 712).

Mobile money services reduced the gender gap of mobile phone ownership to 7% in Kenya as women were persuaded to own mobile phones to receive money from their sons and husbands working outside their local area. Both men and women in Kenya used the service to the same degree and more than 80% used the service unaided (GSMA Connected Women & Altai Consulting 2015).

Some market women in Uganda sent goods to their customers via public transport services and collected their payments through mobile money, using the same method to pay their suppliers (Svensson & Larsson 2015). Another female street

vendor in Uganda used the service to send remittances to her mother, who cared of her child living in a village and to receive money from the men with whom she had intimate relationships (Masika & Bailur 2015). Some women sent small amounts of money to their children living away from home for educational purposes (Comfort & Dada 2009).

Married women in Mbarara, Uganda who had completed university education, yet decided to stay at home due to family responsibilities, would buy their own SIM cards or change the Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) of their mobile money accounts because they did not want their husbands to know much they had saved on their mobile money accounts. They paid bills without going to a bank and received money transfers from husbands without waiting for them to bring money in person (Davidsson & Anderson 2015).

Several other studies discuss the importance of mobile financial services (MFS) for women in developing countries, who are unable to perform their financial transactions with formal financial institutions because of their lack of income, high domestic responsibilities or the nature of their income-earning activities. In some parts of the world where public transportation systems are irregular or absent, women must spend a lot of their time to visit a formal financial institution when necessary (Asongu 2015; Asongu & De Moor 2015; Donner & Tellez 2008; Ondiege 2010).

In another study by the Grameen Foundation (2013) on the use of MFS by poor rural women in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, and the provinces of Laguna and Quezon in the Philippines, found that awareness of MFS was very low among Indian women. Only about 5% of Indian women participating in the study had heard of MFS, while 41% of Indian men had used it to deposit, withdraw, send or receive money, buy train tickets and pay bills. However, many Indian women were aware of the MFS provided by Cashpor, a micro-finance institute with which many had accounts. Approximately 78% of them used Cashpor to obtain loans and save money.

Indian women participating in the study mostly relied on family members or agents to conduct transactions due to their inability to read instructions, fears of making mistakes, lack of knowledge concerning how to correct mistakes in the middle of a transaction and lack of knowledge about using mobile phones. However, younger

women in India and the Philippines were more confident and competent in using the service (Grameen Foundation 2013).

The awareness and use of MFS among both men and women in the Philippines was high, with no significant gender differences indicated- particularly due to their high levels of SMS literacy. Even the government of the Philippines uses MFS to collect taxes and issue social security payments. Sending and receiving money was the main use of MFS for both men and women, with a few using them to pay bills and save money. With no gender difference, participants in both countries relied on one regular agent for reasons such as trust, convenience, reliability, willingness to help and proximity.

In Sri Lanka, Dialog Axiata PLC initially introduced mobile money services been awarded a licence in April 2012 to launch the services under the Payments and Settlements Systems Act No. 28 of 2005 and allowed to register mobile customers, even those without a bank account, by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Castri 2013, p. 8). Thus, Dialog commenced their mobile money services in June 2012 as eZ Cash (Castri 2013, p. 9). More than 300,000 customers registered for the service, increasing to more than one million within its first year of operation.

However, in Sri Lanka, the adoption of mobile money services was slower compared to other countries because of the strong established banking system in the country. There are around 1669 commercial bank branches in Sri Lanka, enabling all individuals to open a bank account with a formal financial institution (Castri 2013). In De Silva, Pulasinghe and Panditha (2012)’s study, 94.9% of FHHs in Sri Lanka had access to a bank account compared to 89.1% of men. This was much higher than FHHs in Bangladesh (17.2%), Pakistan (8.0%), India (40.5%) and Thailand (88.5%).

3.3.3 Value-Added Services (VAS)

VAS is another ‘more-than-voice’ service successfully used by MNOs, governments and local and international NGOs to deliver information, particularly to women, through text messages.

In 2011, a mobile VAS was launched by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the ExxonMobil Foundation and Nokia to deliver business-related information via SMS to more than 100,000 female entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Nigeria

and Tanzania. In the first phase of the project, challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in these countries were identified. The service was then developed on Nokia Life and Nokia Life+ platforms. In August and December 2012, the program was introduced in Nigeria and Indonesia and in Tanzania in 2013. The service has been recognised globally, winning awards in 2012 and 2013 for Best Consumer Service Innovation at the Global Telecom Business Awards. However, Nokia decided to close their platforms in December 2013, with no reason given (Levy et al. 2014, p. 19).

A case study by Cai, Chew and Levy (2015), conducted with 282 Indonesian business women, assessed the impact of a free mobile app, entitled Usaha Wanitha, provided to female entrepreneurs who used Nokia Asha smart phones. The service sent four or five messages each week to its subscribers in Bahasa Indonesia on bookkeeping, customer relations, management of employees and bank accounts. The content was created in collaboration with a technology consultancy, representatives of Nokia, Indosat MNO and a local NGO. It found that the women increased their monthly profits because of the information gained via the app. Attracting and retaining customers and analysing costs and profits were the most read topics. The perceived usefulness of the app was strongly correlated with entrepreneurial optimism, future expectations of the respondents concerning their businesses and previous business training, but not with their age or education.

The service made available at no cost encouraged its uptake, as mobile users in the Global South are highly concerned with mobile phone expenditure (Zainudeen, Samarajiva & Abeysuriya 2006; Donner 2007; Diga 2009). Assessing the needs of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Indonesia separately and providing information in their own languages were also the strengths of the program, enhancing its effectiveness and relevance. However, it only targeted young women with Nokia Asha smart phones and Nokia Series 400 feature phones and the service was terminated unexpectedly (Cai, Chew & Levy 2015), which disappointed and isolated users. However, these indicate some of the common challenges in ICT initiative programs for development introduced in the Global South.

De Silva, Pulasinghe and Panditha (2012) argue that the increased use of mobile phones, particularly economic-related more-than-voice services used by FHHs at the BOP for business purposes in selected Asian countries, would improve the

economic standards of households. Yet, their use and awareness of mobile phones are less than those of male heads of households. Furthermore, it is argued that it is essential to consider the educational levels of FHHs when designing more-than-voice services or training programs because most, including participants in Sri Lanka, had studied only up to the primary level and a large proportion in Bangladesh (46.7%) and India (52.6%) had never attended school.

Zainudeen and Ratnadiwakara (2011) examined the awareness and use of more-than-voice services, such as mobile money; government, agricultural information and social networking services, of 9540 low income mobile phone users at the BOP in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Thailand. Despite higher levels of awareness, the regular use of those services was found to be low. In Sri Lanka, for instance, only 2% of participants used mobile Internet and only 19% more-than-voice service users of a total of 632 respondents. There were 8.5% of more-than-voice users in the Philippines and 30% in Thailand, identified as innovators, early adopters, and early majority adopters fitting Rogers’ (1985) definitions (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara 2011).

Between men and women of similar characteristics, men were higher users of more-than-voice services. Given that social influence could increase the number of more-than-voice users, Zainudeen and Ratnadiwakara (2011) suggest using marketing strategies such as group discounts, affordable charges and relevant content. The importance of governments in disseminating relevant information through these services is also highlighted because it is the easiest way to reach the greatest number of people.