This time last year GSMA Connected Women announced the 8th recipient of the Connected Women Innovation Fund grant: Ooredoo Myanmar. Over the last 12 months we have supported Ooredoo Myanmar along with their partners Population Services International (PSI) and local start-up Koe Koe Tech to launch Myanmar’s first mobile maternal health service: maymay.
In 2014, Ooredoo launched the first non-state-owned mobile network in Myanmar, followed closely by its competitor Telenor. Maymay was designed to be launched in line with the launch of the Ooredoo network with the aims of improving the perception of the Ooredoo brand, increasing ARPU and serving as a successful differentiator when competing for new subscribers. Ooredoo also hoped the app would contribute to improving maternal health outcomes in Myanmar, a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Southeast Asia.
Mobile maternal health is not a new concept, in fact there are many services across the developing world that provide basic maternal health information in text and voice form through mobile. However, the mobile landscape in Myanmar presented both a unique opportunity and a significant challenge.
Four months after the launch of maymay our case study report “Myanmar, mobile and maternal health” aims to answer the questions:
• How do you design a smartphone app for a people who have never used a phone?
• How do you balance affordability with commercial sustainability?
• What’s the commercial and social impact?