The Question Box Project

The Question Box Project is an interesting group using mobile devices to bring the internet to rural communities, even to places that don’t have computers….

Question Box brings the power of the Internet to people in the developing world using voice and a mobile phone. The idea is a very simple – Question Box is a phone or intercom box people can use to call a local-language Operator. The Operator answers most any question searchable on the Internet for the caller. This idea thereby brings much of the Internet’s information resources without asking much of the user in terms of new behaviors.

So basically, if you’re a farmer in some place like Tiruchirapalli, India who wants to know what a flight to Goa will cost, you would call this number which would put you through to a local dialect speaking operator. That operator would then use the internet to find the best answer to your questions. They might just look at Kayak.com but if you’re a poor rural farmer who doesn’t have access to a computer, much less the internet then this kind of access is invaluable. It’s an interesting concept, and something Google.org should consider looking into since their GOOG411 service is essentially the same thing.

I can see this becoming a huge success for two reasons. In the developing world one thing that there is an abundance of is cell phones. People everywhere are starving for better communication tools. When such things become available they spread like wildfire through urban and rural communities, often to speak with family members or to do business. In areas where cell phone reception isn’t available, there’s always the occasional satellite phone. Making the internet accessible to all is a grand idea, but not feasible with computers because of the lack of infrastructure needed in the more rural areas. Mobile devices don’t have that caveat.

Although the idea is good, I’m sure investors are asking themselves how to monetize such a service. One idea is embed ads, but often that’s a waste when much of the developing world doesn’t even have the money for a cell phone, why advertise even more things that they can’t afford. (Note: So how do people get cell phones they can’t afford? Family members, NGOs, employers and of course the black market for cellphones in the poorest of these regions is huge.) Another idea might be to micro-charge the carrier for each call the dialer makes to the QB service. I’ll also suggest that these charges be per call instead of per minute, as charging by the minute essentially puts a price on information that would discourage future use. That would be the model 1-900 numbers and 411 used in the United States. As soon as you make the call you’ve spent money, and anything beyond that is the choice. Further monetization could come from connecting callers via phone or email with the information they’ve requested. Since many customers will be using prepaid plans so as to avoid going over their budgeted limits, the money is already guaranteed.

Nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see how this progresses. For more on Question Box, click here.