A sting operation conducted by Mocality Kenya has just shown that Google Kenya has been illegally, systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product (Getting Kenya’s Businesses Online – GKBO) to Mocality’s Business Owners. Also Google has been telling untruths about their relationship with Mocality, and about Mocality’s business practices, to do so.
This sting report was released by Stefan Magdalinski, GM Mocality in a Mocality blog post released this morning.
The report includes some revealing reports, transcripts, calls that Google will have to answer to.
Some of the questions that come to mind (by Stefan) are:
- If Google wanted to work with our data, why didnt they just ask? In discussions with various Google Kenya/Africa folks in the past, Id raised the idea of working together more closely in Kenya. Getting Kenyan businesses online is precisely what we do.
- Who authorised this? Until we uncovered the India by way of Mountain View angle, I could have believed that this was a local team that somehow forgot the corporate motto, but not now.
- Who knew, and who SHOULD have known, even if they didnt know?
Mocality, also present in Nigeria, is a business entity owned by Naspers. Naspers is the 5th largest media company in the world. Other entities owned by Naspers in Nigeria, include Dealfish, Multichoice.