Next month there will be 402 Million Internet Users In India and India will become the 2nd-largest internet user base in the world only next to China. Nigeria has about 7.1 million daily facebook users, but India has about 59 million daily facebook users and it is increasing. I’ve read many articles/webpages that have compared Nigerian’s Internet Market to Indian’s Internet Market and some agree that they are similar while some haven’t. If they are similar in (culture, technology, traditional ways and etc), wouldn’t it be wise if Nigerian Services/Startups targeted Indian’s Market since India has more internet customers/users than Nigeria? Like will it be easier/quicker to make more money from India’s internet customers/users? Create a local/localized app/service/startup for Nigeria, clone it and adjust it for India.
If it’s localized, you will still need to understand the market in India itself to target it and not just make assumptions from what you read in the media.
Once upon a time, the narrative was that Nigeria’s market was very similar to Brazil’s. While I was at Jobberman, we worked together with a very large and profitable job search company over there (http://www.catho.com.br/ - you may want to translate from Portuguese using Chrome) to understand their business models and apply some of it here in Nigeria. Needless to say, things didn’t turn out quite the way we expected. Brazilian job seekers were willing to pay a subscription for the opportunity to apply for job listings. Nigerian job seekers, not so much. In fact, there was backlash on forums accusing us of scamming people when they didn’t get interviews, forgetting the fact that applying to the right job was key in itself, rather than just making sure you exhaust your quota by applying sporadically to random openings.
That said, yes the market may be similar, but you can’t just clone and call it a day. You will need to be on ground, hands on, and continuously tuning your product/service for optimal returns. I wouldn’t call that quick or easy.
Okay First of all thank you Mr. @xolubi for taking the time and patience to answer my question but most of all thank you for sharing the wisdom and intuition you gained/ learnt from your experience. I believe that what you’ve just provided has given me (and maybe other people) a shortcut on what to do/try or not do/try. I really appreciate it.
Typical. Was just discussing this with a friend. It really boils down to the MENTALITY of the people you’re targeting. Sigh Africa has a long way to go tbh.
@davidsmith8900 . I’ve also been looking into Indian startups for a while now. I’ve made some interesting discoveries. They do have a lot of similarities in terms of culture ( close knit extended families, large weddings, large diaspora community. etc) . However there tech space is literally like 7-10 years ahead of us. A lot of the founders have had extensive experience in silicon valley with multi-million dollar acquisitions behind them. One major difference is that alot of the founders are actually Indians.Their education system is a lot more developed. There are a lot of engineering/ technology focused institutions, so talent would be less of a problem. They had similar challenges with eCommerce, mainly logistics & trust. However some interesting solutions have been created. Most top eCommerce sites also use the pay on delivery method. In general we can definitely learn a lot from the Indian tech ecosystem. It is a lot closer to reality here than silicon valley. However, as with all things, just because it works there doesn’t mean it will work in exactly the same way here. I believe that innovation in the Nigerian tech space is really finding the right business model. Once we do that our tech space is bound to grow as fast as India’s.
Back to the topic, lol. Well in terms of targeting India’s market, it wont be that easy. 1. The language barrier 2. Local knowledge 3. Building a network
@davidsmith8900 , why not “conquer your own Jerusalem” first. Nigeria is still a very fertile and potentially lucrative market for internet companies.
Nah, that’s just superstitious thinking. People are people. Problem is never from mentality - people do things the same way everywherre.
Excuse me?
Nope. I strongly disagree. We’re dealing here with people who will rather join lengthy queues in banks to cash money or to pay their dstv bills rather than use an atm or a highly convenient payment app.
There are also highly sophisticated people who explicitly say they will NEVER pay for anything online with their cards. How does the market grow without a serious shift in mentality?
First you have to be successful in your home market, second the same opportunity must exist in a target foreign market, third you must be able to take advantage of it. So Its not necessarily about just market size.
It quite depend on the nature of the startup, I target Indian proximity in my ads campaign and it has been interesting and productive all the way than even US, but I still believe the nature of the startup determines
I agree with @mark ,and I would to go further and say people would happily pay for value. People won’t pay for something that does not give them value they cant measure. People are people. We operate in India by the way, as a business, so I think the markets are far more similar than we think, but the difference is more often limited to the way we approach things we do, and what we expect the response to be. In many cases, it’s more of the misaligned perception of utility.
I am offering you this big opportunity/access, you must pay for it. I think you have not offered me anything worth paying for, why should I pay for it? People think the same way everywhere, under the same circumstances and conditions.
Given the stage of Indian technology when compared to Nigeria, the similarities in terms of desposition, culture, attitudes to money, eCommerce etc. the reverse of the initial statement probably has more to offer, that is:- What internet / technogy startups have worked well and succeded in India that could be adapted to the local Nigerian context…
India’s market is fast evolving at a pace that has never been seen in this parts. I do follow some of their entrepreneurship blogs and they are quite ahead. The internet usage as well as the mindset of innovation not forgetting the adoption of technology to solve problems there is mind blowing.
Do u know that the amount of funding being channeled to India at the moment is among the top three in the world? Indians are tech savvy. The only commonalities between them and us is the poverty and some level of ignorance in the interior parts of that country.