Kazakhstani marketer Alimzhan Bisembayev has calculated that the mass rollout of the messenger Aitu in the public sector could cost the budget more than $1 billion a year due to mandatory compensation for the use of employees' personal smartphones.
In his Telegram channel "Marketing in Kazakhstan" he wrote that the platform is being promoted through "controlled structures", and the goal of the campaign is to ensure an influx of new users by the end of the year.
"According to rumours, from September we need to ensure an influx of new users so that we can boast about the results at the end of the year. Everyone likes the figure of 1 million users," Bisembayev wrote.
He reminded readers about Article 129 of the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, according to which the employer is obliged to pay compensation when an employee uses personal property.
"The amortisation period of a smartphone is three years. Therefore, the cost of the smartphone must be divided by three years and then by 12 months. For example, if it costs 360 thousand tenge, the employee should receive 10 thousand tenge per month. And since the application cannot work without the internet, it means the employer is obliged to pay for mobile communications," the marketer noted.
Bisembayev suggested that such expenses are not included in the budget, since the initiative to actively promote Aitu only began to be implemented this year.
According to his calculations, if 1 million employees use the messenger, the total costs would amount to approximately $85 million (45.7 billion tenge) per month or more than $1 billion (537.7 billion tenge) per year, of which about 10% would go to mobile operators.
"Colossal figures going up in smoke. Or into the furnace fed by the budget. Guess who benefits from this," the marketer summarised.
It will be recalled that in August it was reported that by 15 September all state bodies and quasi-public sector organisations in Kazakhstan were to have completed the transition to the domestic messenger Aitu for official correspondence.