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Digital platforms in Africa: A case-study of Jumia Egypt's digital platform

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  • Badran, Mona Farid

Abstract

Africa has struggled to maintain e-commerce in its growing economy, as e-commerce share in Africa's GDP amounted to less than 1 percent in 2018. However, Latin America succeeded in reaching 2.4 percent of e-commerce share of its GDP. E-commerce share in the GDP of the United States reached 10 percent, while China placed itself as a leader by reaching 20 percent level of e-commerce as a share of its GDP (UNCTAD, 2018). This evident gap created a massive opportunity for the establishment of e-commerce digital platform such as Jumia Group. A critical motivation for the present study is that digital platforms in Africa are gaining momentum, due to the increase that has been taking place in the apps economy in these countries. Furthermore, there is a knowledge gap, specifically on how African policymakers should govern this new disruptive technology to understand and promote digital platforms in African countries, as it is a new disruptive technology. This paper analyzes digital platforms (DPs) in developing countries by applying the analytical framework introduced by Rossotto et al. (2018). This framework can be summarized by the following pillars: definition, business models, platform enablers, and platform dynamics. The current study applies this framework to Jumia Egypt's digital platform. Additionally, this study investigates the importance of the changing nature of network effects and other economic idiosyncratic features of DPs. Finally, the paper concludes with practical and holistic policy recommendations to support the growth of DPs in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Badran, Mona Farid, 2021. "Digital platforms in Africa: A case-study of Jumia Egypt's digital platform," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:45:y:2021:i:3:s0308596120301671
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2020.102077
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mona Badran, 2014. "Young people and the digital divide in Egypt: an empirical study," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 4(2), pages 223-250, December.
    2. Belleflamme, Paul & Toulemonde, Eric, 2016. "Who benefits from increased competition among sellers on B2C platforms?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 741-751.
    3. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1986. "Technology Adoption in the Presence of Network Externalities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 822-841, August.
    4. D. Harrison McKnight & Vivek Choudhury & Charles Kacmar, 2002. "Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 334-359, September.
    5. Carlo Maria Rossotto & Prasanna Lal Das & Elena Gasol Ramos & Eva Clemente Miranda & Mona Farid Badran & Martha Martinez Licetti & Graciela Miralles Murciego, 2018. "Digital platforms: A literature review and policy implications for development," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 19(1-2), pages 93-109, March.
    6. Graef, Inge & Wahyuningtyas, Sih Yuliana & Valcke, Peggy, 2015. "Assessing data access issues in online platforms," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 375-387.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ologunebi, John & Taiwo, Ebenezer, 2023. "Digital Marketing Strategies, plan and implementations: A case study of Jumia Group and ASDA Uk," MPRA Paper 118771, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Yan Yu & Wenjie Hu & Chunyu Dong & Xiao Gu & Bojan Obrenovic, 2023. "E-Commerce Development and Green Technology Innovation: Impact Mechanism and the Spatial Spillover Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Jiang, Hongli & Hu, Wenjie & Guo, Ziqing & Hou, Yan & Chen, Tingqiang, 2024. "E-commerce development and carbon emission efficiency: Evidence from 240 cities in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 586-603.
    4. Makoza, Frank, 2022. "Analysing Digital economy Strategy of Malawi against the Digital Economy Ecosystem Framework," EconStor Preprints 264273, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Hannan Amoozad Mahdiraji & Fatemeh Yaftiyan & Aliasghar Abbasi-Kamardi & Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi & Jean-Michel Sahut & Leo-Paul Dana, 2023. "A synthesis of boundary conditions with adopting digital platforms in SMEs: an intuitionistic multi-layer decision-making framework," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 1723-1751, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital platforms; Africa; Jumia Egypt; Economic attributes of DPs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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