We don’t have a reliable connection, so people become frustrated and leave after just a few minutes. “I have photocopying, binding and secretarial services here, but most people come for the Internet. Out of multiple business centres on the first floor of the building, none has more than two customers. There is a crush of people moving in every direction as they shop and work. The busy Keker Building in the Mexico area houses many business centres, shops of every kind and offices. The conversations we used to have online, we now have to have on the phone, so there’s not too much difference in spending for us,” student Helina told Fortune. And price wise there’s not much of a difference. We used to be able to chat with our friends no matter where we were or where they were. “We don’t like that we don’t have mobile Internet anymore. And not many are choosing to spend it at Internet centres. It would seem that most of those users are letting their money speak for them. There are four million social media users currently in Ethiopia, up from one million in 2012. The answer to this seeming paradox may lie in the shutdown of social media sites.
Morning customers aren’t plentiful at the best of times, but now, with the declaration of the state of emergency and the shutdown of social media and mobile Internet networks, business centres that usually see many customers a day now don’t see even half that number. Even in the late afternoons when schools let out and students crowd the streets. NovemLately, a glance at the business centres and Internet cafes that line the streets of Addis Ababa tends to reveal a strange lack of customers.
0 kommentar(er)
