When 3 Elephants Compete, The People Enjoy!!

I perceive and believe an Internet revolution is about to sweep Nigeria and the continent Africa, clean with access to extremely cheap and mega fast Internet and Data Access. This revolution might have commenced months back, but  my observations began after MainOneCompany Launched her Fiber Optic Submarine Cable, which is about 14000KM long from Lagos to Europe with a data capacity of 1.92TerraBit Per Sec. Click here for details : www.mainonecable.com/networkpage.php . While still relishing the expectation of  the 1.92 Thousand-Billion Expressways to the Internet in every second, Globacom launched her GLO-1 and dubbed it THE ONE (Notice they all want to be the ONE, Glo1, MainOne). Glo1 and MainOne cables both have approximately the same capacity, along the same stretch and investment cost of $700,000,000 (N 107,800,000,000, 107.8 Billion Naira) each. These investments are huge, so also the profits. I can imagine a Return of investment of 10% per annum (please help with the maths). Glo1 and MainOne are beginning to battle for market share, and boom MTN came up with a press release revealing the plan to launch West Africa Cable System, which is basically like the other two and investments also approximately the same.

You see, at this time investments in a particular market, the internet/data access market is 3 * $700,000,000,  which is about.....wait my calculator is still processing the figures to Naira........N 323, 400, 000,000. Yepa! No hunter will shoot in the forest for fun without a game at sight These investors have spotted their own game and they will get it at all cost. To recoup their capitals, all forms of market analysis, 'paralysis' and trick will be brought to play, and Nigerians trust The Bull (Don Nuga) and his Glo Team, they will slash the cost of sweet internet access and large bandwidth to almost nothing. MainOne will definitely not carry last and WACS will compete to lead in MTN’s fashion. This Competition will be fierce among the three Internet / data access providers and we consumers will be the one to benefit. It will get to a point where they will beg us to use their service almost at no cost with full benefit. This is the case of 3 Elephants fighting in competition, with the grass suffering  and the  people enjoying!

Now to the ‘KOKO‘ (crux), of my perception. I have a little knowledge of economics, and the Demand and Supply Principle (Thank God for ECO 111 during my engineering undergraduate years in Covenant University). When Supply is High, and the Price is Low, the Demand will rise to balance the supply. If this is true, that means the amount of people who are going to hook themselves up to the internet will increase, and since in this case the demand is near astronomical for now, i should expect the demand to rise in such fashion also. The internet community in Nigeria and Africa at large will rise astronomically. Now we have a virtual gathering of real people, they sure will have needs. I am sure you and I can meet some of their numerous needs. So, I am thinking, “Could this be similar to what motivated Jeff Bezos in quiting Walstreet and establishing AMAZON (www.amazon.com)?“. Yes, I guess it is, meaning an oppurtunity to re-create Bezos in our local context is underway. I have being searching and thinking of ideas to implement, with the easiest being,  Ctrl + C (COPY) AMAZON. Imagine an e-commerce site which sells goods for outlets like SHOP-RITE, BuyMore (BuyMoria), ADIDE, COSCHARIS, RENTNG, and other producers. You know something like an

e-Retail Outlet say an online WALMART, or should dub it AKMART (From Akinbayo Mart), or XPORIA . You, liase with the producers and sell their products in retail online. Once a buyer sees and makes a request online, we recieve the request with payments and order the producer to supply to the buyer. Infact I am thinking, this business idea can soar high into the space without having to make down payments to the producers, so its like doing buisness without cash. We are simply connecting the buyer Nation and continent wide, even worldwide to the Producers.

I am thinking Just Maybe AkMart or Akazon (as Wale Coined on my Facebook page) will take the African Market from Amazon.

I had set a goal to patch up a business plan for this idea before the end of October 2010 and I will appreciate your critic to build it to a solid business model and plan. I am so sure you will get your own share of the N323.4 Billion by so doing.

Thanks

NB: I apologise for errors as this is the is the second draft, and the final will come up soon.