Jon Gos, I am in agreement with you as to why Google is doing the Africa blog. They might not have figured out how to reap big profit yet in Africa, outside of the google ads platform, but I’ll bet that they have something in the making.

i think in the long run this will have a significant effect on the web scene in Africa

I’ve noticed that they’ve been opening either administrative offices or data centers all over the world for the past few years. I think they’re aiming for market dominance in every place that has a working computer. There’s some great info on their market stranglehold at RWW (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_70_percent_market_share.php) today.

The other thing on Google’s mind is probablly how to move their products into a revenue stream other than Advertising. Steve Balmer is always quick to criticize them on that. They have some server solutions, the GIS and mapping stuff, and others like Google Checkout which even combined probablly make up less than 1% of the money they make. The fact that they’re dabbling in these areas means someone there is thinking about diversifying at some point down the road.

Also, since they started getting into buying up bandwidth to offer free Wifi, maybe they’ve realized what an incredible thing that be for Africa.

I agree – they’re definitely in Africa for the market potential. I think what I’m trying to wrap my mind around is Google’s strategy. Google itself is/was a software company, and most software companies have never really needed to be in any country or location apart from the one the actual development work was being done in. Now Google is making some major strides into the Brick & Mortar world with its mapping initiatives which separates it from software companies of before – because this actually requires them to go out into the field; an effort to bridge the virtual and actual.

On another hand, maybe they’re realizing what the open source community has known for ages – developing software for the global economy can only be done collaboratively – with anyone and everyone.

Personally I think the people at Google recognized the fact that they had virtually no presence in a region that has nearly a billion people and growing influence in the world. It’s either ‘get in’ early or spend billions of dollars brokering deals later like they did in China. I do think (and hope) they have a lot to offer as far as jobs, education and technology but the bottom line is they’re there for the market potential. Safaricom is just a blip on their radar but it’s still an example of a competitor doing well in a place where they aren’t.

Taylor, Google has been anticipating the kind of situations you’re talking about from the beginning – why else would they have hired a Human Rights lawyer (Elliot Schrage) as their PR chief? What is more interesting is that the same guy recently defected to FaceBook from Google, but that’s another story.

What I’m really wondering is if perhaps Africa is Google’s corporate/social responsibility experiment? Google won’t be the first company to do that. Or maybe an outpost in the wild west of the digital frontier? Who knows… One thing is for certain though – the $350 prizes for the East Africa Google Gadget competition might be a hint at their level of commitment.

I am not comparing the situations. What I am comparing is the potential PR mess from a business perspective. Chad had an attempted coup and still has a rebel issue (not to mention a Sudan issue), Somalia harbors nearly all the modern day pirates, has had no central gov’t for how long? just killed the top UN official there, Uganda has the LRA issue and Kenya just had the election crisis not to far back that narrowly avoided turning into an all out civil war (the whole reason Ushahidi was dreamed up originally).

My whole point is that I’m trying to explore why Google would leave Sudan out. Any ideas? If you think my theory is flawed, please throw out a better one.