Divorce go mobile - DIY Divorce on your mobile phone

ISSUED BY MYDIGITALLIFE
Author: BERTUSPRELLER

Normal 0 false false false EN-ZA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0cm;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}In a recent blog post I posted an article on how the law evolved in the digital space with the launch of eDivorce an online internet DIY divorce service in South Africa. In yet another ground breaking initiative eDivorce today launched its service on mobile phones, which in all probabilities is a world first whereby divorce proceedings can be instituted by using a mobile phone. The service was developed by local Cape Town mobile applications developer eSplash.  Users of the service simply sms the word DIVORCE to 34994, sms charged at R 2, and are then able to download and complete a questionnaire that triggers the eDivorce platform`s document generation component. Users must have WAP enabled on their phones. This is definitely a world first in utilizing mobile phones to commence a legal process.

All across the African continent, in almost every country, Internet usage via cell phones is growing like crazy - not by 10 or 20 percent, but by several hundred percent, year-on-year. For example, in the top 12 countries in Africa, the number of overall page views on cell phones increased by 422% between April 2008 and April 2009. Over a similar period, the number of unique users increased by 169%.

According to Vincent Maher from Vodacom, in South Africa, 90% of all data users are on Prepaid contracts. Most of these people are young black men between the ages 20-30.  46% access the mobile Internet more than 5 times a day. For the vast majority of these people, their first contact with the Internet was through a mobile phone, it was therefore a necessity that eDivorce went the mobile route. People who access the Internet via cell phone are not going to `graduate` to using computers. Most of them primarily access the Internet through their phone, and use social networks ONLY on their phone -- for example, Facebook, Vodacom`s service, The Grid, and of course, MXIT South Africas largest social networks on mobile phones.

Also Google is moving into the African mobile market with the launch of Google sms. In many places around the world, people are looking to their phones to find the information they need in their daily lives. This is especially true in Africa, which has the world`s highest mobile growth rate and where mobile phone penetration is six times internet penetration. One-third of the world`s population owns a mobile phone, and many more have access to one.

According to Arthur Goldstruck of World Wide Worx, Cell phone access contributed 450,000 new users this year, but is set to grow exponentially by 2013, as we see cell phones being built to allow better access, and as people start discovering and building their experience in accessing the internet on their cell phones.

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