
Jumia is not an African startup - amolo
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1117092692423512064.html
======
chirau
An "African company" does not necessarily mean a company registered in Africa
or owned by Africans.

When us Africans refer to something as African, it can mean several things.
Allow me to call it a FUBU approach. That means "For Us, By Us". It can also
mean "For Us or By Us"

This means the entity does not necessarily have to be of African origin, it
can just be a result of its focus on Africa. Jumia operates exclusively in
Africa, and by virtue of that and our Ubuntu mentality, it is for all intents
and purposes, one of us. Though not officially.

When Africans supported the French soccer team last year at the World Cup as
"our African team", do you really think Africans are not aware that France is
not in Africa and was not representing Africa either. It's just a social
construct that gives us something to cheer about, historically we haven't had
much.

The same FUBU mentality is also why a lot of Africans considered non-Africans
"African heroes". Where I come from, Fidel Castro is an African hero for
educating our doctors for free and sending doctors of their own. It's not
because he is African. It is simply because of FUBU and Ubuntu.

~~~
Edmond
I am afraid you're making quite a statement there on behalf of all
Africans...This African completely disagrees :)

~~~
chirau
And that is totally fine. I am sure my opinion does not represent 100% of
Africans.

------
deesep
"Let’s also be honest here. Jumia didn’t succeed because it was “African”.
Jumia owes part of its success to a marketplace that doesn’t believe in
domestic brands. It’s heavy lifting to build a successful local brand, because
you’re viewed suspiciously."

I live in Ghana, and I don't shop on Jumia[1] because i don't believe in
domestic brands. It's a ridiculous claim. This[2] is a local brand that has
made 10,000+ successful sales via Jumia. The major challenge of doing
E-commerce in Africa is that excluding some affluent parts, many towns and
cities don't have functioning address grids. It's a complete mess and one
requires the use of landmarks and long descriptions to locate places.

Jumia representatives always call to ask for directions to your location. If
they get lost, you could have them give the phone to anyone nearby who is
familiar with the neighborhood. You can then have the stranger direct
them(Jumia delivery reps) to your location. It may be unconventional, but
works.

I and millions of people who shop on Jumia do so cause it's convenient and
provides a needed service. Until a few days ago, I had no idea it's a German
company and its founders are french. Calling it an African company when it's
not may be deceptive, but please don't say it's successful because Africans
don't love local brands.

[1] - [https://www.jumia.com.gh/](https://www.jumia.com.gh/) [2] -
[https://www.jumia.com.gh/white-label-woven-kente-
fabric-6-ya...](https://www.jumia.com.gh/white-label-woven-kente-
fabric-6-yards-multicolour-67916.html)

~~~
externalreality
You shop on Jumia because it's convenient. It's also convenient for foreign
interest to setup an Amazon like business to skim millions off the top of an
economy that can scarcely afford it. The point is, Jumia is not good for
Ghana, a domestic company would create more jobs and keep hundreds of millions
of dollars of wealth from leaving the country. Its not about whether or not
you get your 1st world products delivered on time, its about pulling yourself
out of the 3rd world and Jumia is not helping you with that.

Many people forget that when Japan first started producing cars they were so
bad at it some models didn't even operate in the rain. Or that American steel,
originally, was supremely subpar to British steel. Its about doing whats best
for the country - and having some foreign entity control a good portion of the
commerce in the country (especially when it is so easy to build your own) is
not a good idea for an emerging economy.

Remember, also, that Jumia will have the same control over market that Amazon
does which is immense power and why the United States is considering limiting
Amazon's power over the market. Basically, if Jumia begins to not only control
the market but participate in the market as well it will be bad for these
small nations.

~~~
chias
I know this is not your intent, but your tone comes across as fairly
patronizing in this comment. There may be a point to be made in what you
wrote, but I suspect that as-is it will do more to put people on the defensive
than to convince them of views they don't already have.

~~~
externalreality
Sound advice but when you read a comment the tone is generally dictated by
whether you agree with the comment or not, since voice inflection is absent. I
do agree, you have to word thing more carefully in the absence of voice
inflection.

------
deogeo
The title says 'a digital colonization thread' \- so foreign ownership or
control of companies is colonization? Does that apply to, for example, US-
owned companies in Europe? Or Chinese-owned companies in the US?

~~~
rising-sky
If you read past the title, I think the author's point is that, this is from a
legal and business perspective a patently German company that is presenting
itself as African solely because it currently does its business there
exclusively. US-owned or registered companies in Europe don't typically
masquerade as European because they operate there

~~~
deogeo
> US-owned or registered companies in Europe don't typically masquerade as
> European because they operate there

Yet when GM bought Opel, the branding didn't change. An uninformed consumer
could easily think they're buying from a German-owned firm. And it's getting
increasingly hard to keep track of the complex webs of ownership of
corporations.

But yes, the author has a point.

------
externalreality
It seems "Africa’s largest e-commerce company" is not African at all. It
always pains me to see this when I visit small countries. Jobs are one thing,
but if small countries find that massive resources are leaving the country in
the name of those jobs then what's the point - it can be considered some form
of trade at best and in the worst case colonization.

~~~
arcticbull
It's hard to say that this is problematic. Canada's largest chain of coffee
shops (Tim Hortons) is owned by a Brazilian company -- is that colonization?
Saks Fifth Avenue, on the other hand, is Canadian -- is that? The Mandarin
Oriental is owned by Jardine Maethson, headquartered in Hong Kong, but
incorporated in Bermuda, with a long history trading opium in the South China
Sea area -- is that exploitation today?

That's just three random examples. Foreign investment allows companies to grow
and succeed. I think there's sensitivity in this area due to past history
though I don't think it's fair in this case. Owning a foreign company isn't
'exploitative.'

~~~
amolo
They do not claim to be a Canadian company for PR and media attention. Thats
the difference. Secondly, Jumia really exploits Africans to make a quick buck,
they sell purely Chinese grade C goods all this is not benefiting Africans.
This is modern day cannibalization. (and they still aren't profitable).

~~~
Canadauni
Are you saying that Tim Horton's doesn't claim to be Canadian for PR and media
attention? Because that is basically the core of their marketing, to be
synonymous with Canadian culture.

------
brudgers
Jumia was set up by Rocket Internet.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rocket-internet-jumia-
ipo...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rocket-internet-jumia-ipo-
idUSKCN1M01PG)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet)

------
wilsonfiifi
Actually Jumia was founded by 2 West Africans but it seems it’s history is
being rewritten [0][1]. Unless there are two Jumias.

This article [2] in particular, written in 2013, is no longer available and
doesn't appear to be available in the wayback machine.

edit:

Seems there's a more in depth article from 2014 [3]

    
    
      [0] https://vc4a.com/blog/2013/09/03/online-retail-becomes-a-reality-in-africas-biggest-market-behind-the-scenes-with-nigerian-internet-startup-jumia/
    
      [1] https://techcabal.com/2014/01/30/jumia-confirms-exit-tunde-kehinde-raphael-afaedor-announces-new-ceos/
    
      [2] https://vc4a.com/blog/2013/08/09/jumia-nigeria-how-a-local-e-commerce-startup-became-a-multimillion-dollar-company-in-less-than-a-year/
    
      [3] https://ynaija.com/how-tunde-and-raphael-got-here-a-profile-of-jumias-million-dollar-ex-ceos/

------
dmix
> They each hold just over 2% of the company’s shares.

Wow, 4% foreign ownership of stock by founders who operate a business entirely
in Africa /s. Is this really the substance of this expose?

Especially considering founder stock isn't how the vast majority of how value
is returned to society in day-to-day business operations. But rather through
the value delivery of the businesses to consumers and paying peoples
employees.

Even the founders living and operating in Africa would mean a massive chunk of
their dividends/salary would be going back into the African economy.

There are a million ways companies can generate value to a region/continent.
The idea that a company is entirely extracting capital/value from other
countries, because the (4% minority ownership) founders are foreign-born and
the corporation was registered in Europe is not how that works.

Just like how saying a couple guys from Boston, with a company registered in
Delware, but their entire operations and business-model is based in California
...is not primarily generating value for California but Boston/Delware.

At most this could only potentially reduce the narrative about individual
success potential of African business owners. But that doesn't make it any
less an African business and a model that businesses _can_ work locally. Which
is all investors care about. Even in SV 90% of investors won't look at you
until you've somewhat proven your business-model OR you have had past success
+ network. Rarely do they invest blind unless it's a trendy highly-well timed
startup they are looking to gamble on in a first-to-market type investment...
but even that is rare.

The authors claim this is merely dismissible by the founders 'melanin' levels
doesn't really hold up to scrutiny.
[https://twitter.com/tmsruge/status/1117106622357299200](https://twitter.com/tmsruge/status/1117106622357299200)

~~~
michaelmrose
They hold 4% how much of the remaining 96% is foreign owned?

------
ntrly
All companies are entirely their shareholder's so unless a national government
has a controlling stake in a company no company is any country's company much
less a continent's one. You might say Jumia is an African brand, brands are
fictions created by companies specifically for the purpose of being associated
with something potentially valued by consumers in a given market.

------
duncan-donuts
Interesting read. I’ve never heard of Jumia before today. The wiki page says
their headquarters is in Lagos, but I didn’t see that mentioned here. Does all
that mean they have an office/headquarters in Lagos but everything else is
outside of Africa?

------
csomar
> Let’s also be honest here. Jumia didn’t succeed because it was “African”.
> Jumia owes part of its success to a marketplace that doesn’t believe in
> domestic brands. It’s heavy lifting to build a successful local brand,
> because you’re viewed suspiciously.

In Tunisia, the Jumia brand is synonymous with shittiness. I used them for
food delivery a few times. It was bad. Then one time, they didn't deliver. I
called the customer service and after giving her my order number, she just
hang up.

They "succeeded" here because they are the first to "invest" and already have
a platform for e-commerce. I don't think they'll be around much longer.

------
mruts
This article seems to be pretty racist to me. I’m white and live in Africa and
am a citizen of Tanzania. But by his standards I guess I’m not African and
never will be? Sounds like a double standard.

------
luminati
I understand the spirit of the tweet storm - but please let me lulz myself a
bit => Tencent is an African majority owned company ;)

------
NotPaidToPost
Jumia operates exclusively (or close to) in Africa. It draws investments to
Africa, it puts Africa on the tech map, and it helps its African customers.

That's seems very positive for Africa.

------
adz_6891
> when a European company casually runs roughshod over that identity [of being
> an African company] and trades in it, it’s a slap in the face. It
> effectively lays a beachhead for digital colonizers in the space. “With
> enough millions you too can claim to be an emerging “African” growth co

I applaud the directness of this article. It's an important issue, there are
big market opportunities in Africa and entrepreneurs who are African nationals
deserve better access to them.

However, it's important to note there are very successful 'tech' companies
part owned by African nationals and incorporated in Africa (as far as I can
make out). E.g. SportsPesa [0] which has a mix of Kenyan/European/US founders
[1] and looks like one of the most profitable East African companies right now
[2] (it blows Jumia out of the water). It's a company doing well enough to
sponsor a premier League football club shirt.

I wonder whether the more serious barriers to young African entrepreneurs are
their governments & regulatory environments. Incorporating a company, setting
up bank accounts and so on in many African countries feels like a challenge in
itself. And many African founders may look for US/European founders simply to
incorporate entities elsewhere which will likely increase their chances of
investment and security. This is where the "beachhead for digital colonizers"
metaphor becomes multifaceted. I think the beachhead goes both ways, because
there is value to an African national registering an entity, e.g in the UK
[3]. This isn't really to do with identity, it's to do with practicality and
trust. It's hard to trust institutions in a lot of African countries, and
that's a disservice to the people and young entrepreneurs that live there. The
smart ones probably won't wait around, they'll figure out the safest
foundation for delivering tech products and services to people in Africa.

I'd be interested to hear from any African entrepreneurs working in Africa
here on what the practical barriers/solutions have been to setting up
companies and getting them working.

[0]
[https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a...](https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=531230464)
[1] [https://samrack.com/who-owns-sportpesa-here-is-a-list-of-
the...](https://samrack.com/who-owns-sportpesa-here-is-a-list-of-the-owners-
photos/) [2] [https://businesstoday.co.ke/sportpesa-float-ipo-nse-next-
yea...](https://businesstoday.co.ke/sportpesa-float-ipo-nse-next-year/) [3]
[https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10682750/officers](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10682750/officers)

------
MetalGuru
Can someone explain to me why Amazon can’t be the Amazon of Africa?

------
neximo64
Is Naspers an African company or does that not count either because of its
roots

~~~
amolo
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naspers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naspers)

Naspers was founded in South Africa so yes its African. Its services and
activities benefiti Africans so yes, it its African. Jumia on the other hand,
unless you are from around here and have used Jumia, you will understand my
point. Read my other comments for reference.

~~~
neximo64
South African 'Afrikaans' isn't African if you're following the same logic as
Jumia

------
anovikov
What's bad about it? This is one big field startups have to disrupt yet:
colonization. Africa probably can't work on its own, we just have to really
figure out colonization. Yes people largely gave up on it in 1960s because it
didn't make money, but they just didn't have that Google moment there, web
search also didn't make money in 1990s. Many places in the world would benefit
from proper adult oversight.

Politicians can't say it because they need votes. But why businessmen should
lie to themselves?

