— BY ALEXANDER ORE
Up until 2012, the idea of a real, functioning, online mall in Nigeria seems like a distant pipe dream, like a story for kids to put them to bed at night if you live in the urban centres and for rural settlers a tale by the moonlight. Although the technology was beginning to creep into the Nigerian banking system, that was just about it, creeping. Founded by the trio of Sacha Poignonnec, Tunde Kehinde, and Raphael Kofi Afaedor it quickly became a household name, especially in 2013 when mushroom tech companies began to spring up all over Lagos, Nigeria.
Also founded around the same time as Jumia is Konga.com but was left trailing and playing catch-up by the former. But by mid-2014 Konga soon achieved household-name status by focusing on rural markets which constitute most of the Northern states and a few South-Western ones of Nigeria. Konga could deliver to the farthest Northern states within 5 working days which gave them recognition in the North while Jumia held a stronghold on Lagos and other Western cities and with the stronger purchasing power of that region it gave the impression of being bigger and it soon was in reality.
Nigeria had been properly introduced to the idea and reality of online malls in one form but had yet to know its other form, Ad Listing. While Jumia and Konga had positioned themselves firmly as the go-to platforms for shopping online OLX came to position itself as the platform to go when you need to buy from regular people and also sell. It’s the first slogan went – “Sell it.” It soon became the media-agenda itself. Nigerians began selling everything they didn’t want or needed anymore on OLX. This gave SMEs a platform to connect to a large number of prospective clients they wouldn’t have had the advertising budget for if they were to go traditional.
Then came the ephemeral which was Yudala around 2015. Yudala within six months became the rave of the online mall. They came not just with an online presence but with physical malls which received an overwhelming positive response from the media which soon positioned them as the media-agenda for another six months at least before it quietly fizzled out and was later absorbed by Konga.
Soon came Jiji.ng in mid-2015 but played lower-fiddle to OLX at least in appearance.
Fast forward four years and Jiji.ng had bought OLX but soon after their goliath conquering came OList.ng, Get99.com and other new kids are beginning to play in the block, and with lots of money to throw around the future isn’t set in an “assurance-stone” for Jiji.
Jumia IPO-ed earlier in the year but has since seen its stock plummeted. It was Africa’s first VC to cross the $1 billion-dollar mark market capitalization but had now fallen below that relinquishing that position to Interswitch. Only last couple of months the company announced that they are withdrawing from Cameroon and Tanzania markets to focus resources on fewer markets to better serve its users and few days later a report states that Jumia is withdrawing from Rwanda that’s yet another African market losing what was once the unicorn of African VCs.
Nigeria’s established online malls continue to whether heavy storms as new ones crop-up almost every six months and affecting the market to a level of degree or the other.
As technology continues to penetrate Nigeria deeper and the deeper the market for online malls grows larger and larger, therefore despite the odds and the challenges online malls will continue to run and thrive in Africa’s most populous nation. The billion-dollar question is who leads the charge now, and who will be leading six month down the road? Will Jumia take its place back or will Konga pounce on its hailing competition or will the Barton of leadership continue to change hands with no defining brand at the frontline, an African Amazon or Alibaba if you will.
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