I can remember what it was like as a young “digital” person in Johannesburg in 2000. The internet was exploding on the other side of the world, and (South) Africa was an afterthought (and still is for many), over and above being a small market. There were various attempts at exciting things, much like all over the world, but most of them fizzled and died, and that no-mans land between 2004 – 2009 was a worrying time.
Looking at the industry now, things are looking very different. Now has never been a better time for innovation, disruption, and growth.
If you’re in Africa, and if you don’t already know, you should know that there are circa 800m mobile SIM cards in Africa, which dwarfs the rather paltry 250m odd desktop PC’s.
And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d also know that the cost of mobile smartphones is just about at that inflection point where it becomes affordable for the majority of the mass market.
On top of that, it’s never been cheaper to start, test, and re-iterate an idea. Crisis, I remember the days of buying in $100k email servers just to send email! Imagine what you could do with $100k today?
For anyone reading this now, those three ingredients mean that for the first time in Internet history, we’re going to see a tidal wave of consumer technology and service adoption in Africa, on mobile devices, which I believe will dwarf the early oughts’.
If we’re really lucky, it will bring with it a surge in economic, social and political change too.
I say really lucky because for the economic, social and political change to take root, the benefits of this disruption need to be realized by people who are local and who keep those benefits local. If all the benefits are gained by people who are based overseas, then that trickle down, knock-on effect you see in other parts of the world, won’t happen. I know which one I want…
So we believe that there’s going to be 3 to 5 year window where local knowledge, local networks, local people and local expertise will play a significant factor in success. So where will you be when this happens?
After that, and like any other emerging market which is seen as a growth opportunity, that local experience and knowledge will be bought in or acquired, and then the opportunities will get harder and harder, and require more capital.
So if you’re involved in tech today, then now is the time to show yourself, to launch your product, to find that co-founder, to hustle those first deals, to look for that growth, to seize the moment.
There hasn’t been a better time in history, and there likely never will be again.
As for Tech4Africa, we’re going to do four things:
- Be more aggressive about the opportunities we see as important for us.
- Be more vocal about our opinions.
- Continue to focus on catalysing the ecosystem through relevance, leadership, authentic content, and connecting people and ideas.
- Roll out our model and platform throughout Africa, focusing on local tech innovation, startups and entrepreneurs.
And whilst doing that, we’re going to remain open to help and collaboration from anyone.
There hasn’t been a better time in history, and there likely never will be again.