The New Times, Rwanda’s First Daily has launched a Mobile website which makes browsing easier and more convenient for readers using mobile phones.The website which is accessed via www.m.newtimes.co.rw is the first of its kind in the country and the company is looking forward to becoming a more Information Technology (IT)-driven business with vision 2020 in mind.According to Guillaume Higiro, the IT/Production Manager, the web portal was developed for readers on the move, “to be able read The New Times faster and a lot more easily while on their way, before they even get to their work places.”“We want to make your browsing experience easy and hassle-free so our exciting new mobile website has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, accessible on smart and non- smart phones,” he asserted.This is the second in a four-part strategy that The New Times is putting in place to improve the use of IT in Rwanda.It’s almost a month since the company redesigned its website that offers readers a comments platform and social media-sharing tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others.Higiro observed that the mobile phone today has become one of the most important delivery channels for businesses and most users find it hard to do without them and thats why the company introduced the mobile website.The mobile portal aims at driving the business and enabling people to read news on their phones without being charged heavily for data usage by their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) because of low bandwidth usage as the mobile website is lighter.“We are proud to be associated with our partners and developers of our website - Imaginet Limited - as well as our readers who continuously give feed back on our products,” he said.Speaking to The New Times, Clarisse Iribagiza, one of the readers of this paper, said that mobile website is a powerful tool to reach the growing audience of mobile users.Iribagiza is the chief executive officer of Hehe Ltd, a local mobile applications development company.“This is definitely a good initiative by The New Times to reach its readers,” she said.
