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African Web Applications & E-commerce

Oluniyi D. Ajao

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There is no denying the fact that the Western world is far ahead with technology, nonetheless, web technologies.

So many web tools/applications are out there that are irrelevant to African countries. Services like Paypal, Ebay, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Free SMS websites, readily comes to mind. It is important therefore that Africans can themselves build such web applications and customize them to fit the life style, economy, social strata of people living in Africa.

I agree with South African blogger, “White African”, when he said: There’s No Need to Recreate the Wheel

In Africa, what we need to do is take the best of those platforms and tweak them for local needs and practices. An eBay-Africa will never work if it looks identical to eBay in the US. However, an e-commerce platform in Africa that takes the best of what eBay does and marries that up with what is needed here will work. (Think smaller margins, different payment options, deliveries and partnerships with local enterprises.)

So, for those web developers in Africa – don’t waste your time doing something from scratch. Start with what’s out there and make it work for your environment.

What about you, reader? What are you doing?

Oluniyi D. Ajao Avatar
Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast. Follow him on X (fka Twitter) @niyyie for more tech updates.

Comments

  1. lawrence Avatar
    lawrence

    hi,
    Just saw this article thought it might interest you. Still on the topic of african web apps.
    Basically, two Nigerian guys doing a black version of Myspace, that works better than the original. I just registered.
    here is the link to the story. yahoo news : http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20060808/bs_prweb/prweb421590_1

    the site is at http://www.caramellounge.com

    Lawrence

    Reply
  2. Oluniyi David Ajao Avatar
    Oluniyi David Ajao

    I have just checked-out the website and it looks promising.
    Keep-up the good work.
    Cheers! 🙂

    Reply
  3. hash Avatar
    hash

    Hey David, thanks for the nod. One correction though, I’m actually not South African, I grew up in Kenya and Sudan. 🙂

    Lawrence, thanks for the Caramellounge link. It’s very interesting and exactly what I was talking about in my post.

    Reply
  4. Oluniyi David Ajao Avatar
    Oluniyi David Ajao

    😀 I must have got the impression because I thought a “white African” could only have been a South African. I read your blog posts regularly (you might have noticed from my comments from time to time) and I have seen that you usually blog about Kenya, etc

    Well, its all good. Thanks for the correction. 😉

    Reply
  5. hash Avatar
    hash

    Oh, it’s not a big deal, and I usually don’t even bother to correct it. As we all are beginning to realize in this new world of technology. Where you’re from doesn’t really matter as much as what you do and believe in.

    Reply

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