In 2010 the six biggest English-speaking African countries had a combined internet population of 38 million. Today those same countries collectively have almost 300 million people online.
This is YouScribe’s second English-language market launch on the African continent. May there be many more.
It’s interesting to look back on my ramblings about the African digital book market ten or fifteen years ago, when the twin problems were a) that very few people were online in Africa, and b) even fewer had a mechanism to pay for digital content.
As I often said back then, the twin solutions for African digital publishing would be subscription and telco payments, which are of course the exact models YouScribe has more recently opted for.
Back in 2010, Ghana had just 1.9 million people online. Today it is close to 15 million – half as many again as Sweden! – so no wonder YouScribe has seized the opportunity.
In the francophone arena, YouScribe has ranged the continent from Morocco in the north-west to Madagascar in the south-east, and I’m looking forward to seeing the anglophone African nations succumb to YouScribe’s charms.
In 2010 the six biggest English-speaking African countries had a combined internet population of 38 million across Nigeria (18m), South Africa (12m), Kenya (3m), Uganda (4.3m), Ghana (1.9m) and Tanzania (1.3 m).
Today those same countries collectively have almost 300 million people online (292 million if you must know), with Nigeria way out in front with 154 million internet users, Kenya with almost 47 million (more than Spain), Tanzania with almost 35 million (just behind Canada), and Uganda’s 23 million putting it on par with Australia.
Safe to say many of those will be on YouScribe’s target list.
Equally safe to say my adopted homeland, The Gambia, with its maybe 500,000 internet users, is not. But Team YouScribe, I’d love you to prove me wrong!
