A few months ago, Amazon began shipping directly to Nigeria and some other African countries. Now, if Jeffrey Bezos decides to dominate the online retail market in Africa by offering $1 billion to buy either Konga or Jumia, would it be advisable for any of them to give in?
Yes they should sell. Also, it’s not really “giving in” in the Nigerian context. We don’t have billions of dollars of capital flying around. A billion dollar buyout in Nigeria is the equivalent of a 100 billion dollar buyout in the states.
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Besides, a purchase would mean better quality of service for the rest of us.
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Yes they should. At least we can be sure their black Friday will no longer be scam
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If history has anything to teach us, success for Amazon in Africa is not necessarily guaranteed. In 2004, Ebay tried to enter and dominate China’s budding space by buying out a growing ecommerce portal, and Alibaba’s biggest competition. It must have been a bit like this Jumia and Konga scenario? What happened? Alibaba launched a C2C marketplace called Taobao and eventually drove Ebay back with tail between legs. Jack Ma is said to have described Ebay as a shark in the sea, but Alibaba as a crocodile in the Yangtze. The sharks rule the seas, they can’t survive in the Yangtze.
Konga’s Sim Shagaya channels Jack Ma a lot. Would he sell to Bezos? Maybe. But if he doesn’t and Amazon decides to come anyway, they’ll get a run for their billions.
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Amazon is not eBay. Africa is not China. And also its different time in history now. Even with the Sim-Jack equivalence.
It is easy to draw parallels but that could also be misleading and dangerous as well.
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Amazon is a monster today. A big, mighty monster. I have too many friends that buy from Amazon already. Right from Lagos. Myself sometimes. If they come, especially with the “elite shoppers”, it won’t be easy for Konga/Jumia. They won’t even need billboards to declare their presence.
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You forget the language barrier between America and China. That plays a major role in so many things from Google search to Amazon to Social media.
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Not to add that Sim can channel Jack all he wants while the market channels their obsessively “inner American”, from naming our movie industry to Yabacon. Yes, I went there. 
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Lol. Well done. Let me resume watching.
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You know. Buying from Amazon will just be the new cool.
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When were you in Akure? I think the place did a lot for you.
This year, May/June. Even though this is wrong thread.
I think Amazon versus Konga or Jumia would be something like watapps versus 2go.
They will be way too stupid not to sell…why?
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They are doing pretty well for local brands but they still haven’t been able to achieve the status Amazon has in the U.S or Alibaba has in China. They are still very vunerable to disruption and Amazon can replicate what they have achieved locally in a very short space of time.
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I suspect that business isn’t even as good as before for them, as this dollar exchange rate will not allow them to be great.
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Over time, the average shopper’s expectation has increased but from my analysis, these companies haven’t changed much in terms of product offering and buyer experience. They come across as somewhat stagnant. But Nigerians want more!
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The question every seller asks is…What If?? If I don’t sell, what will happen to my business? Can Amazon survive without buying me? If the answer is yes, then they really should sell.
If we defer to your logic, that would make Wish’s founder and CEO a really stupid fellow then. If the rumours are true.
Maybe you haven’t heard of Wish, the five-year-old e-commerce startup.
But all the major e-commerce players have. Sources close to the company say that Amazon and Alibaba have talked about buying it in the past year. And the price they’re talking about is jaw-dropping.
The most interesting rumor is that Amazon recently offered $10 billion in cash for Wish — and Wish walked.
$10,000,000,000!
Sure they don’t have to sell. Nobody has to, really. I’ll happily shop from Amazon though, and lots of people will.
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Groupon walked away from Google’s $6 billion. The rest is history. You may later, be thankful for it,
or plainly just regret it. For Wish founder, only time will tell if stupid or smart, for walking away.
Facebook walked away from Yahoo!'s 1 billion. You know what happened next. Snapchat walked away from Facebook’s 3 billion. You know what happened next. One or two isolated examples aren’t a prescriptive for the future.
My first post on Radar 
To answer this question, it is better to read - “The Everything Store” which is the story of Amazon.
One would also need to find out how Amazon bought zappos.com and diapers.com. Jeff is gangster when it comes to acquisitions.
If he wants Konga or Jumia today, it won’t even be a matter of choice for the owners
We are still agreeing. Only time will tell.