America’s ecommerce giant, Amazon, is speculatively planning to launch operations in Nigeria’s e-commerce market by April 2023. The online marketplace, which is valued at $1.080 trillion (June 2022) is also expanding to four other countries including Belgium, Chile, Colombia, and South Africa.
What this means
The top-rated American company would compete against Nigeria’s biggest e-commerce companies, Jumia and Konga.
State of play
Amazon, which currently operates in 20 countries all over the globe, will compete with two of Africa’s biggest dominant players in the Nigerian e-commerce space, Jumia and Konga. Although by valuation and international recognition, Jumia and Konga are no match for Amazon combined, the former has an advantage of being popular amongst the target audience, Nigerians.
- Jumia, on one hand, has a valuation of $477 million while Konga, which was acquired by Zinox in 2018, is valued at $2 billion by unconfirmed sources.
What they are saying
- According to a report by Business Insider, the launch of the company’s operations in these five countries is based on an internal timeline.
- Belgium’s marketplace, called Project Red Devil, is slated for late September.
- The one in Colombia, dubbed Project Salsa, is scheduled for February 2023.
- South Africa, codenamed Project Fela, is also expected in February 2023.
- The marketplace in Nigeria is due to launch in April 2023. That project shares the codename Project Fela with South Africa.
- Chile is planned for April 2023, too. It shares the Project Salsa name with Colombia.
What you should know
- Amazon’s expansion into more countries aligns with the company’s commitment to long-term investment.
- In a recent quarterly report on the company’s earnings, Amazon generated $28.8 billion in international sales.
- Of all the five countries which Amazon will be expanding to, only Belgium would have the Amazon’s Prime membership program be available at launch.