[akadruid]

This article bugs me a bit, since it seems to be a "Big Tech Hates Africa" article, whereas I think the reality is more "all large companies are spending minimal resources on poorer areas of the world". It certainly does make Africa look a left out on a map, but large areas of Asia are equally not targeted by large companies, but the geo-political layout is different.

While it is odd that so many large tech companies haven't highlighted their presence in Africa, there are some notable omissions from that list. Microsoft, for example, have clearly listed contact points and targeted support pages all over Africa, including Kenya[1], and SAP has a number of operations across Africa[2].

The reason for Google not listing their Kenya office seems to be to do with the type of office it is[3]. They do have quite a few jobs listed in both Kenya, and the author's own city: Kampala in Uganda[4].

Perhaps when the tech industry matures, we'll see the kind of coverage a large manufacturing company has[5].

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/phone/contact.aspx?countr... [2] http://www.sap.com/contactsap/countries/index.epx [3] http://whiteafrican.com/2008/07/04/google-kenya-and-the-goog... [4] http://www.google.com/jobs/africa/ [5] http://toyota-africa.com/cars/new_cars/index.asp

[c1sc0]

I hate to be blunt, but why would a company open branch offices in countries that are both poor AND not growth countries when there are so many easier opportunities in e.g. asia, eastern europe or south america? Just a matter of priorities ...

[richardw]

The impression I got by the end of the article is that he says it's up to Africa to make itself relevant to tech companies, certainly not that tech should pay more attention to Africa 'just because'.

[davidwilson]

I agree. Overlooking Africa probably has more to do with so many (and cheaper to exploit) opportunities back home than it does with not being interested in Africa.