Key to the success of Google's fledgling Kenya operation -- a partnership with the telecom giant Safaricom -- is convincing Kenyans they need Google:

Michael Joseph, Safaricom's CEO, explains that the company needs to teach people to need Google. Like virtually every African country, Kenya has several times more cell phones than Internet users. People have cells because they "understand the value that a phone gives them," Mucheru says. Despite futurists who crow about the Internet's potential to enrich Africa, Mucheru admits that, as yet, the average person isn't sold.

Apr. 28, '08