The ‘Amazons’ of Africa you’ve probably never heard of
If you are an online shopping enthusiast who has a good idea of what the go-to services are in Africa, and you haven’t heard of Jumia (Rocket Internet) or Konga, you’ve probably been sleeping under a rock by now.
Having spent over a month in Ghana and Nigeria in 2019 so far, it’s been wonderful to see the developments of online African businesses at work in West Africa first hand; whether it was driving past the Konga Warehouse in Lagos, or seeing a Jumia bike delivery in Accra. I’m getting more confident that Africa can soon compete on a global level on a level playing field. The rapid advancement of internet on this continent will be the main catalyst for this prediction.
Jumia, which is arguably Africa’s answer to Amazon, is rapidly building momentum and is about to go public on NYSE, valued at over $1 billion dollars. If you haven’t already invested in Africa, now is definitely the time. What Alibaba, Flipkart and Lazada are doing to Asia, is reminiscent of what Jumia and Konga are doing in Africa.
Konga (bought by Zinox) has a much smaller piece of Africa’s eCommerce market share, catering only to the the Nigerian nation. However, this focus is not to be overlooked, with Nigeria being the most populous African country; currently standing at 191 million people. They launched back in 2012. With internet advancing in Nigeria, this has created more opportunities for them to diversify their portfolio; including digital products KongaPay and Konga Express.
Following a similar business model to New Zealand’s TradeMe; where all the complimentary products such as payment processors, are kept in-house, this helps to establish an eCommerce eco-system for their customers, increasing margins per visitor and cuts costs for the Nigerian online retailer.
Jumia (part of the Rocket Internet family) was also ironically founded in 2012. Since then, it has gradually built up a market of over 400 million internet users and now serves over 14 African countries. It’s product portfolio consists food delivery, gadgets, hotels and flight booking and more. One transaction gets processed every two seconds on Jumia. And when you hit numbers like, you attract big game attention, such as Golden State Warriors’ Andre Iguodala, who recently joined the Jumia team as an ambassador and a board member.
With both businesses being headquartered in Nigeria, it’s clear that this West African nation is the gateway to Africa for Online Retail, which makes for an interesting battle on home soil for the digital naira.
If you are established overseas seeking a digital gateway into West Africa, Studio 14is a great place to start being a bridge between both.
