Amazon has finally acquired Souq.com, the Middle East eCommerce company for about USD600 million.
The move marks its introduction into the Middle East. From my inference, Africa might be the next turf for Amazon to play in.
Should it plan to enter Africa through acquisition, there are three players: Takealot.com, Jumia.com and Konga.com. However, because of Nigeria’s peculiarity and less developed infrastructure, Amazon might enter South African market first.
So to me Takealot of South Africa might be acquired soon.
https://pageone.ng/2017/03/28/amazon-emaar-malls-acquire-souq-com/
Why would amazon acquire e-commerce in Africa? Have you asked which e-commerce company would acquire a foreign brand instead?
Amazon will only move into a market via acquisition if it is cheaper/more efficient than doing it themselves. My bullshit analytics tell me that is not the case in Nigeria (I don’t know lots about other markets in here). I, the typical mid-high income young Nigerian internet native, have bought more from Amazon (in both volume and value) in the past three months than I have from Konga and Jumia combined in the past year.
That should tell you something about the state of e-commerce over here.
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