Do we have any good enough standby companies in Nigeria/Africa that can be trumped when similar situations Presents itself?
Do this case reinforce the argument for/against government regulations , restrictions and policies as a maker or breaker of indigenous companies and startups success or failure ?
Yes @Oboraxe. Thanks for the article but to answer your question, we have Postman by @Ari_Biton, we also have HowFar and The Orbi Android App. There are many more, but those are from the top of my head.
This isn’t even looking at the story in its full form. Whatsapp was banned because they wouldn’t subject to opening back doors for government spying. In protest, people switched to the next IM provider with end to end encryption. The thing is, neither Facebook nor Telegram are obliged to comply with Brazilian legal requests. Local players however are in a different boat altogether.
Now let us bring this home. If a situation like that ever arose, your local startups would have to either bow to government demands, or face the music. Of course they wouldn’t be able to afford to do the latter, and the net effect will be Telegram or some other foreign company looking attractive to end users in protest.