DESIGNING FOR EMERGING MARKETS : CASE STUDY FOR MYANMAR
AIM : To understand mobile phone User Behaviour of urban poor Micro-entrepreneurs in Myanmar
--> The final report can be accessed here.
Field Diary Entry and Mini Ethnography
Mapping the process & documents required by a micro-entrepreneur to acquire a business licence without which s/he cannot rent a space & public utilities necessary. More can be found in the report.
Mapping the process & documents required by a micro-entrepreneur to acquire electricity connection, alternate sources of electricity and expenses associated with them. More can be found in the report.
Presentation of key findings with clients, policy makers, academicians and experts from the telecom sector.
"The cost of new connections had been a huge barrier in accessing mobile telecom services in Myanmar. In fact, SIM cards were priced around MMK 150,000-200,000 ($150-200) in the market (and it used to be about $ 500-600 a few years ago). In 2014, Myanmar had only two denominations of top up cards, MMK 5000 ($5) and MMK 10,000 ($10) and even MMK 5000 ($5) was a considerable amount to spend. So even though the users spent that much in a month, they were unable to spread the expenditure over multiple days by purchasing lower denomination top up cards." - Insights from the Report
Team :)
I was in Myanmar for 40 days. Hope this video takes you through my journey as a researcher there. :)