Absolutely not, we were very much Middle East and Africa focused, in fact we've lived in many of the countries where we were going to market. We were in SF physically, but had on-the-ground teams in 15 cities.
Perhaps you all just mistimed the market. With smart phone penetration and 3G coverage steadily increasing, maybe two years ago there just wasn't the existing user base to make it feasible. If that were the case you'd also have to incentivize the purchase of smart phones and data plans (which is always a difficult sell).
However, the need is glaring and I refuse to believe there is no incentive for people to find a better solution. Happy to listen to a counter argument though.
Look at the most advanced markets suffering from this problem: GCC countries.
Most of their residents have the very latest devices, are at least as tech-savvy as your average Western consumer, and have disposable income. We conducted hundreds of different experiments, and most of them led to the same conclusion: pain by itself is not enough. These are people that have suffered from the issue extensively (including myself for many years), yet are unwilling to engage in a significant behavioral change. Investors feel exactly the same way, and I am talking about the very best with partners who were raised in some of these countries.
I am not saying that we tried everything, but I think we were extremely exhaustive, often employing city-specific growth/incentive tactics akin to those used by many successful companies in these regions.
It's a super simple problem to solve. There are hundreds of solutions out there. The people, thus far, have wanted none. I think I know why, and I am keen to share our findings, ultimately, though, there really is no better way to convince yourself than to find out directly, by getting your hands dirty.
We'll see how it pans out. Maybe you should speak with Timbo at OKHi and share some thoughts with him. All I know is it's a glaring problem, government's aren't going to address (pun partially intended) the issue, and it will be solved somehow. The technology is simple, but so often in these markets, the execution is complex. With you all being spread across 15 cities and based in SF I'd imagine it contributed somewhat to missing the mark (on top of being a difficult problem in the first place).
Yeah, there's no way to tell. Nobody has succeeded in the space so far, and that's because it is extremely hard to draw people in with "a functional address" as the main premise. Even if it's an address with which to do things that weren't possible before, it's still an address, and it's boring as fuck. Nobody cares about address update feeds, or any other gimmick you'd find in Foursquare's garage.
I am pessimistic but excited as a technologist and entrepreneur. Maybe there's something us and many others have missed that the team here will see. Myself, I would definitely look more in the direction of services like M-Pesa and Facebook than e-commerce or government. That's my two cents.
However, the need is glaring and I refuse to believe there is no incentive for people to find a better solution. Happy to listen to a counter argument though.