An investigation of implementable location–based services for Gauteng

Abstract

South-Africa is a country filled with opportunities for those blessed with an entrepreneurial spirit, especially in the field of technology. South-Africa's uptake of technologies tend to lag behind of those of developed countries due to various technological constraints currently experienced, such as the high cost of bandwidth and relatively high cost of computing devices. Such constraints can be expected to have a negative impact on the consumption and use of online services within South-Africa arguably due to the scarcity. The situation is improving as bandwidth becomes more affordable and as computing devices, specifically handheld devices such as smartphones, become more widely used. It can therefore be expected that popular online services will also start to be consumed by South-African users as the scarcity of resources slowly becomes a thing of the past. The delay in online service uptake, caused by scarcity of resources, may create various opportunities within the South-African market for technology companies to create services that will have the capability to grow as the South-African market grows. The purpose of this study is to identify service concepts and ideas that have already been implemented by companies in other countries and that could easily be adapted to the unique demands of the South-African market to create a competitive advantage. The definition of the study and the objectives are discussed in more detail in the first chapter of this dissertation. A thorough literature study is conducted in chapter 2 to gain a better understanding of the concept of cloud computing, its advantages, disadvantages and other areas of concern. Various ways in which online businesses manage to generate revenue online are also discussed to help the reader to gain an understanding of the complexities involved with the management of online businesses. Location-based services are also discussed in more detail in an attempt to discover if opportunity exists for the provision of location-based cloud services. An empirical study is conducted in chapter 3 to identify service delivery companies that created services that could be adapted and implemented in a South-African context. Various recommendations are also discussed to advise South-African technology start-up companies on possible service ideas. Chapter 4 presents a summary of the entire dissertation in addition to recommendations based on the study. The recommendations include providing location-based family tracking services, location-based scavenger hunts and location-based gaming services in South-Africa using cloud computing technologies.