PLAYPOWER blog / Early market research in Ghana and Brazil

Early market research in Ghana and Brazil

One of the key learnings from IDDS 2008 was the importance of early market and product research in the design process for developing countries. The earlier in the process you know about what your users think about the product and how much are they willing to pay for it the more you can benefit from that data throughout the design process. We intend to conduct similar market research using the existing educational TV computers (TVC) in our target markets of rural Ghana and urban Brazil. This early research will also help us understand what type of local educational content is needed in these markets.

One of the first steps in this research process is to find out how can we get some units of TVCs from the manufacturer in China to these target markets as cheaply as possible through an efficient distribution channel. We had been trying to get more information about the TVC manufacturer in China, but haven’t had any significant progress so far.

Anyone in the community has ideas on this or anyone had dealt with Chinese manufacturer in past?

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 11:35 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Mike Rosenberg

Another option is to contact procurement agents in Yiwu, where everything "Made in China" is sold. For background: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2005/jun/...

These agents will take pictures of products for you and can acquire wholesale rates as well as arranging shipping (air or container). They claim to take a mere 3% commission though I think it's closer to 10%. Still extremely cheap.

Another option might just be to fly to Guangzhou and try to meet with these guys directly. You might even find some Brazilian or Nigerian (or even Ghanaian) customers there.

Jecel Assumpcao Jr

If you bring computer from China into Brazil, expect to pay a 60% import tax, some 18% sales tax (on top of the 60%!!!) in addition to other expenses. For example, the OLPC machine for which Uruguay paid $188 was offered at $420 in Brazil (part of that was the requirement of a three year full warranty).

On the other hand, making the computers locally ends up incorporating indirectly a lot of local taxes which you don't have in China so you don't end up that much ahead.

The particular machine you guys are interested in used to be sold in Brazil by local company Dynacom. I bought one myself a few years ago for a little under $100. Their current model has the same electronics but a PC tower style case. I have no idea what they are selling these for, but might be able to find out.

I have been designing low cost computer for education in Brazil since 1983, so if you need any more information or other type of help just let me know.

martin

hi derek,

do you already have your chinese manufacturer?

if not maybe those links to some manufacturers help.
you can find them easily by searching for "tv game" or so
in business portals like www.made-in-china.com

http://dongchengdongao.diytrade.com/sdp/341774/...

http://www.baltikagame.com/product1s.asp?Parent...
(better use the internet explorer for this website.)

another thing:

the european union authorities found some famicom-type
gun to contain dangerous amounts of chromium and lead.
check out item nr. 3:

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/dyna/rapex/create...

before ordering a bigger amount of those tv computers
i'd test at least one of them before.

all the best
martin

Mimi Rothschild

Derek,
Give me a call. 30 years of experience in these areas.

Mimi

Playpower.org

We need your help!

Early market research in Ghana and Brazil