Using the Internet to Drive your Business Growth by Dr Strive Masiyiwa

The most valuable "real estate" in the world!

A few months ago, I was talking with a leading entrepreneur who has made billions in the media business. Our discussion centered on how an entrepreneur can use the Internet to make billions of dollars. We called it the most "valuable REAL ESTATE in the world… more valuable than land."

Every entrepreneur needs to "see" the Internet as "valuable real estate," in much the same way you would see a piece of land for building something like a hotel.


From now on, when you go onto the Internet for anything, I want you to "see" as an entrepreneur, and not just as a consumer of a service. Challenge yourself to ask the hard questions:

# "This website I'm visiting -- how do these guys actually make money?"
# "How does this App make money?"
# "What is their business model?"
# "Why can't I build something using the same concept?"

This week, I want to revisit a few lessons on using the Internet from our live case study, Kwesé TV.  As you know by now, we have built four Internet-based platforms:

Kwese.com
KweseSports.com
Kwesé App
Kwesefied.com

If you were discussing with a billionaire potential investor, would you, as an entrepreneur, be able to answer the questions I've posed above, based on observations from these platforms?

Remember a key lesson I’ve shared before: Every business today must do everything possible to drive its growth using the Internet.

This means (I've said it before and will do so again)...

__Every business must have a website!

These days when someone wants to learn something about your business, your brand, your product, or your services, the first thing they do is study your website:

# Remember, people are able to look at your website from anywhere in the world. So make it world-class.

# A website must be clean, and clear about what you’re selling. In our case, we sell television programming, which includes movies, series, documentaries, news and sports.

# The website must show a customer where and how to get the products or services on offer.

At Kwesé, for instance, we have established one key website: Kwese.Com.  This website is not only our key window to the world; it’s also, most importantly, the place where we want our customers to go first when they want to learn about our services, and how to get them.

Where do I go if I want to know about your own business? How do you draw my attention to it? Here’s a simple technique:

I WILL GIVE A KWESE TV DECODER AND DISH TO THE FIRST 25 PEOPLE WHO GIVE ME THE CORRECT ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

__Using the Kwese.com website for your research, tell me the name of a local dealer in Ghana, Rwanda or Zambia. (If there's no service in your country by the end of June, then I will send you an iPad).

SEE! I have used this simple technique to draw your attention to my site. (This is a real contest... Please post your answers ONLY under this main post, not under one of the Afterthoughts).

Can you think of other ways you can also deploy?

Now let's discuss the future, your future: What are your plans for a business on the Internet? I’m excited to hear some of the progress made by some of you, and look forward to reading more.

In China, they believe in being "fast followers." That's why they have their own versions of Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and Twitter...

Africa is waiting for our own response!

End.