PC Kiosk Trends in Rural India

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PC Kiosk Trends in Rural India

• Kentaro Toyama1
• Karishma Kiri1
• Deepak Menon1
• Joyojeet Pal2
• Suneet Sethi1
• Janaki Srinivasan3
• 1Microsoft 2University of California Berkeley
  3Indian Institute of Information Technology
• Policy Options and Models for Bridging Digital
  Divides
• Tampere, Finland March 14, 2005

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What is a rural kiosk?

• A shop or community center in a rural village
  equipped with one or more Internet-connected PCs.

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What weve looked at so far

• Data sources
• Literature in journals, books, web sites,
  whitepapers
• In-depth interviews with kiosk agencies
  (Drishtee, n-Logue)
• Discussions with third-party observers (academia,
  govt)
• Over 30 site visits in India and Africa (Akshaya,
  Drishtee, ITC e-choupal, MSSRF, n-Logue, )
• Ethnographic studies
• Kiosk surveys

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The Survey

• Goal to understand rural kiosk operation from a
  business perspective
• Three types of questionnaires for each kiosk
• A Village baseline, one time only
• B Operator, 1 per kiosk, recurring
• C Customers, 5 per kiosk, recurring
• Translated to local languages
• Delivered orally
• N-Logue
• 150 villages
• Recurring questionnaires every 3 months
• Over 2 years
• Drishtee
• Two sets of 75 villages each
• Recurring questionnaires every 6 months
• Over 2 years
• 2 surveys completed, 3rd begun

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Sample Questions

• Kiosk operator
• Demographics
• Main source of income?
• Kiosk operation
• What services offered?
• Customers
• How many customers do you see per day?
• Miscellaneous
• Would you consider opening another kiosk?

• Kiosk customer
• Demographics
• Your profession?
• Spending habits
• How much do you spend on food per month?
• Kiosk usage
• How often do you visit?
• What services do you use?

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Findings

• Predominant customers are students and unemployed
  youth
• Customer survey capped at 2 students out of 5 per
  kiosk

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Findings

• Kiosk customers almost always reflect gender of
  operator

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Findings

• Word-of-mouth critical for spreading use
• First usage for gt60 based on word of mouth, in
  spite of marketing efforts in village

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Findings

• Kiosk customers not necessarily PC literate
• 70 of customers never touch the PC (operator
  mediates)

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Findings

• Top services computer skills education,
  entertainment, e-government, desktop publishing

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Findings

• Average monthly kiosk revenue not enough to
  sustain
• Required between Rs. 3500-6000 per month (
  50-85)
• Current mean and median Rs. 2000

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Villages that can sustain a connected PC
Income
Literacy education
Knowledge- based needs
Infrastructure
Economies of scale (population)
Villages that cannot sustain a connected PC
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Focus on Sustainability
Villages that can sustain a connected PC
Income
Literacy education
Knowledge- based needs
Infrastructure
Economies of scale (population)
Villages that cannot sustain a connected PC
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Focus on Development
Villages that can sustain a connected PC
Income
Literacy education
Knowledge- based needs
Infrastructure
Economies of scale (population)
Villages that cannot sustain a connected PC
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Bridging the Digital Divide?

• Other possible models for IT in development
• Non-PC computing platforms
• PCs for village administration
• Government-subsidized kiosks
• Rural business process outsourcing (BPO)
• Computers in schools
• IT for existing non-IT development projects
• Etc.

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Thank you!
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Backup Slides
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Common Applications

• Applications
• E-agriculture
• E-government
• Computer training
• Telemedicine
• VoIP, chat, e-mail
• Etc.

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Successful PC kiosks may not be about the PC.

• Some non-IT functions
• Cooking classes
• Public announcement system
• Phone service
• Etc.

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The kiosk operator can make or break the kiosk.

• Operators need business skills, computer skills,
  entrepreneurial ability
• Careful selection of kiosk operator important
• Training and follow-up critical

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Spending habits
Q. Please specify the approximate amount spend by
you on each of the following? Sample size 275

• All segments spend equal on various basic
  necessities
• Monthly spent on kiosk by most of the segments
  is between Rs. 14 - 20 (.30 - .45) which is .37
  of the total monthly HH income

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Kiosk revenue vs. other revenue
Q. From the various income groups mentioned
below, please select the one in which your
monthly household income falls? Q. How much do
you earn on an average every month from your
kiosk Sample size 150
The major source of income for most kiosk owners
is not the kiosk
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Forresters projections for installed base of PCs
worldwide
Millions of PCs
Emerging markets to be responsible for 70 of
growth in PC sales by 2010
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Q What are the challenges with rural kiosks?
A5 Scaling to 600,000 villages (for India alone)
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A Yes, of course.
Source United Nations, 2003
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Rupees per month
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Needed to break even 70-140/mo.
Rupees per month
data from Vivek Dhawans Masters thesis (IIT-B)
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CRT display 50
Q What is the cheapest a PC could be, anyway?
Keyboard/mouse 10
Disk 40
Power supply 10
Memory 10 for 100MB
Other silicon 20
A 150?
Processor 20
courtesy of Chuck Thacker (who says closer to
250)
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IIT-Madras/Midas Metel low-cost phone and e-mail
device
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HP Labss Script Mail for pen-based e-mail
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LeapFrog LeapPad for healthcare education in
Afghanistan
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Government-sponsored lunches at a school in Tamil
Nadu
A well-water hand-pump in Madhya Pradesh