Business ideas from Uganda's Google searches

By Dickson Wasake

How do Google find out what is important? In their own words: We studied an aggregation of over one trillion searches (or queries) that people typed into Google Search this year. We used data from multiple sources, including Google Trends and internal data tools. We filtered out spam and repeat queries to build lists that best reflect the spirit of 2012.

So what mattered the most to Ugandans in 2012?

Football

Xscore was the 2nd top search in 2012. It is a website that provides sports scores. The number one event searched for was Euro2012.

The number one and two websites searched for were also soccer related, i.e livescore and soccervista. Of the top 10 people searched for, six were footballers (Van Persie, Ronaldinho, Nuri Sahin, Lucas Moura, Alex Song and Fabrice Muamba).

How do you turn this into a money making opportunity?

This is already being milked through sale of jerseys, sports bars and betting shops and mobile apps. My best bet (no pun intended) for the future of this however is through online football gambling that is tailored to Uganda (say accepting mobile money transfers). This should be supplemented by physical soccer betting shops similar to the UK ones like William hill and Ladbrokes.

Of course gambling is an addiction but so is alcohol and cigarettes et al. So the moral implications need to be considered.

Mobile Entertainment

Waptrick was the top search in 2012. It is a portal that provides free information such as MP3 songs, movies, games etc. In addition the 5th top search was wapdam, a portal providing free games for the mobile while the 7th top search was Tubidy. A mobile video search engine.

How do you turn this into a money making opportunity?

A similar portal that allows payment by mobile money in return for downloading Ugandan music, movies, videos (Anne Kansime anyone?) or games (how about omweso or ludo) will be a breakthrough.

With a link to entertainment news tailored for Uganda. It should in addition have a link to all the top entertainment and gossip websites or tweeter accounts.

The BET awards 2012 were, for example, one of the top event searches and likewise The Sun a UK tabloid was one of the top 10 news sites.

Finally, it should have a link to where the newest mobile phones and tablets can be bought - now this is an opportunity to charge advertisers to use your portal. Ugandans love phones and the top phone searches were: Samsung, apple and Nokia products.

A word of caution. When developing your technology portal or website. Please keep it simple and if possible, include Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

It seems Ugandans are not yet very conversant with technology. A huge number of searches in 2012 were still the “basic” questions (for someone who has been in the technology world since the 90s) like

What is software, what is URL, What is google, What is a computer, what is internet.

Knowledge/Information

Ugandans are a very inquisitive nation. They want to know. There are three whole categories of the top searches dedicated to finding out “What is”. These categories include health, technology and business.

The top five questions Ugandans are asking include:

• What is love?

• What is technology?

• what is planning?

• what is ethics?

• What is language?

How do you turn this into a money making opportunity?

Content-based advertising

This is free market research. To make money, the entrepreneur should use the concept Google has mastered: Content based advertising. When someone for example searches for “love”. Google will always offer information on the sides on say, where you can find a “love doctor”. The advert/ information on where to find the love doctor is paid for by that love doctor.

Tailored to Uganda by means of a mobile based app for Uganda, this can be tailored by means of developing a classified portal or a “digital mall website”

(Which can be viewed on mobile phones) that classifies shops/retailers on the basis of people’s information needs.

What this means is that for example, if the top search is “What is love” The portal/website should use category names like “love” “Technology” “ethics” and below that have say a list of counselors, bookshops selling books on love, shops with gadgets and religious counselors and ethical businesses.

Target advertisers with this free market research

The portal developers should be going to advertisers with this information to show them that this is what Ugandans are searching for! Like I said, this is free market research.

Oddly enough……

Ugandans don’t appear to be particularly bothered with politics.

There was not even 1 search related to politics. Whilst there was a general search for newsites like New Vision, Monitor and Bukedde, this cannot necessarily be interpreted into a specific interest in politics rather than a general interest in knowledge.