Will Econet Struggle To Convince People To Use New Products/Services After Kwese Play?

It looks like Kwese Play service is all but gone even though Econet assured users that the service will be restored. I think some of you can agree with me if I include Kwese Play on the list of failed products out of Econet’s factory. The failure of Kwese Play comes 7 months after the monumental failure of Kwese TV, which no doubt left people bitter. And this time it ain’t different, Kwese Play users are so bitter with Econet:

Implications

After its success in the telecommunications business, Econet has, of late, directed its efforts to the Media and Technology sector as part of the Telecommunications Media and Technology business model (TMT) but it seems like its failing to replicate the success it has enjoyed in the telecommunications.

The Media part (of TMT) was/is constituted by Kwese TV, Kwese Play and Kwese iflix. Already Kwese TV and Kwese Play are fallen heroes and Kwese iflix is still the standing soldier. The Technology part, which was/is constituted by all of Econet’s products which provide a platform, has many failed products too. For instance, Ecolife, Econet VoIP, Tenga, and Ecoshopper.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. There are just too many babies from Econet that have prematurely died that’s why I now think it will be hard for Econet to introduce offerings in the future. In particular, Econet will struggle to gain users for products that will require the purchase of hardware. But yeah, there’s a good chance that products which come in the form of a software or app download will stand a good chance of easily gaining new users, provided its good. Its all about psychology. There seems to be a higher level of commitment to start using a service that requires hardware purchase than that which only require purchasing a software download. Disappointment in the form of the service getting shut down will affect hardware purchasers more than software purchasers.

Accordingly, Econet’s future products like Kwese TV (purchase decoder and satellite dish) and Kwese Play (purchase Roku Box) will have to be exceptionally good to make customers forget the prospect of being left with souvenir of a failed product (you can easily forget a software product since you just have to uninstall it, but a hardware will continue to linger in your living room). The future is not all bleak for Econet as they can still introduce new hardware-less products for their Media and Technology. As for any hardware associated products, they have to be an exceptionally good product to relatively easily gain new users.

N.B In this article, I used product and service interchangeably.

Also read: List Of Failed Products By Econet

Also read: What Led To The Death Of Kwese’s Satellite TV Service?

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