I have been following closely soundbites from the eCommerce sector. One player that seems to be making too much ‘noise’ is Yudala. I am a bit skeptical with their ‘frenzy’ because they are making many implausible promises with less than one year online.
Just some days ago, they claim to have raised $70 million from unnamed foreign investors. I just got alerted by Google News that Yudala will be using drones to deliver packages. I am not saying this is not possible but coming from a young eCommerce startup, these larger-than-life posture and PR stunts of Yudala is a sending the wrong signal to discerning minds. eCommerce in Nigeria is not all-rosy, Yudala’s approach might end up making many folks jobless by the time they accumulate debt.
They need to be more cautious.
Yudala’s founders run one of the largest computer companies in Nigeria. Let’s just say money isn’t their problem.
http://techloy.com/2015/06/09/yudala/
"The retail company, which appears to be owned by Technology Distributions Africa boss, Chioma Ekeh (wife of Leo Stan Ekeh, the Chairman of Zinox Technologies, a local PC manufacturer) is set to be the first e-commerce play to combine an online shopping platform alongside retail stores located in major cities across the country, with plans to expand into other major African cities.
In case you don’t know, TD has been a pioneering local distributor of consumer technology products in West Africa since 1999, representing OEMs such as HP, Microsoft, APC, Epson, IBM, Dell, Canon, Cisco, D-Link, Huawei, Lenovo, Zinox, Toshiba, i-Direct and Samsung."
Maybe you wanted to say is time Jumia starts firing more people because Yudala will accept more of their staffs laid off and put them to good use.
$70M is even too small for a company like Yudala, I think there are bigger.
Mind you, Yudala is just (a cover) entry brand, the main are some of those highlighted by @binjoadeniran.
Mind you, there need more workforce. Don’t forget to tell your neighbour to send a CV.
“Shay you know say money nor be problem.”
-Sarkordie.
“We are talking money, you are talking nonsense.”
-Rick Ross.
Yawn
Houston, Yudala has a problem. Copy?
Yudala noise…
Using drones for delivery is what is always on the mind of major e-commerce companies in Nigeria and i believe it is feasible if it is executed properly.Just think about the Devilish Lagos traffic and the consequences on the delivery within the city then you realize it is necessary thought.
So we are captivated by the news that Yudala is considering a future system that uses unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to deliver packages.
I can’t help but earnestly ponder the effects of weather, thieves and other factors, because I’m sure to keep a drone to myself as a souvenir if it does deliver to my doorstep. 
And we’ll probably receive this sought of notice if there’s a failed delivery.
You are really funny
I won’t even wait for it to land - I would so shoot it out of the sky if I saw it pass by. LMAO
Drones? For Deliveries?? Nigboro Eko(in the streets of gidi)?!! This generation???
Kontinu.
LWKMD!!!..Can’t wait to keep one for myself too… Time to launch a drone_hunting_club …
Probably for delivery in some selected places on the island…cause if they try am for mainland…in places like ojuelegba,mushin,oshodi,agege haaaaa…hmmm…Issok…both the package…the drone…the recipient will go missing…then money go be problem…
Nice PR publicity Yudala, Nice one. The factors to consider before that can be implemented are enormous and considering companies focused on delivery services alone are still facing challenges even with humans, I think unmanned delivery drones are…well,simply “mindless drone thoughts”!
Drones for delivery??? Cool!!!
Let’s face it!! The Future of cargo delivery is by drones and the earlier we embrace it the better… But not the way you are imagining it…
When you say drone and oshodi in a sentence, it doesn’t make any sense at all. If the Drones are used for dispatch to customers, yudala will run down, fast!!! … But if used to ferry cargo from warehouse to warehouse, or warehouse in one state to those in others, that’s when it makes sense. Then you would be needing a winged platform drone for heavy cargo and long distance delivery. All my orders from e-commerce websites when I’m in ibadan takes at least 1 week. With this, “if they have the brains to pull it off”, orders from outside Lagos or the far regions of Lagos might just take 1-2 hours, which will be a huge selling point for any e-commerce platform in Nigeria at the moment.
Goodluck with your drone hunting club, if you can shoot it down, we just might be asking a different question of how you got the gun. Needless to say, you would have to be a very good sniper to achieve such a feat. Let’s assume one starts throwing things at it like our great grand fathers from the stone age where their missiles were made majorly of wood, grenades were pebbles and nuclear bombs were large boulders of stone. You have a higher chance of being the president of China than knocking it out of the sky at 400 feet in such crude manner.
At 400feet, you might not even notice them flying over you except you walk with your head facing up. Accident and mistakes happen, that’s for sure, the effect of those can be mitigated to very safe numbers by using quality components in the Drones and by specifying air corridors over very low population regions
Drones are freaking awesome mehn!!!
Trust me, I know
We seem to be thinking alike.
We already embraced the idea since back in late 2013 when Amazon announced they were working on it. On the other hand, Yudala is some company that has been all pomp and pageantry since they came on the scene, and this being the latest of their antics is what’s being discussed. So you see, context helps… and would have definitely saved you that almost-essay.
Apparently they made good on their promise. Now they have to scale.
“@Yudala kicks off first eCommerce drone delivery in Nigeria” https://t.co/zAQrGBVc75 #africatech via @techpointdotng
Yeah watched it on the news and I was seriously thinking can they really deliver goods via drones on a massive scale. Anyway am curious and keeping an eye on this.
Lemme go n get my catapult…it’s hunting season again…if they plan on using that kind of drone I saw on that page to delivery goods,they will end up having missing in action drones and undelivered/miss good.