The World That is Whatsapp in Nigeria
More than a messaging app.
According to AppAnnie, Whatsapp is the most rated app in Nigeria on the Apple store, falling second place on the Google Play Store.
A̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶o̶p̶u̶l̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶9̶8̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶r̶s̶, the internet of Nigeria is largely mobile, with instant messaging and social networking accounting for a huge amount of time spent online. Despite the abundance of fancy features on mainstream social media platforms, instant messaging is a big deal globally. Nigeria is no exception.
Whatsapp specifically thrives in Nigeria for obvious reasons;
The low barrier to entry: For a country that sits high on the poverty index, a phone number, smartphone and few megabytes of data opens up a window to the internet. Some smartphones come with Whatsapp pre-installed, this alone counts for its huge adoption rate in Nigeria.
Audience Familiarity: Although, now commonplace for messaging apps, automatically syncing with your phone address book instantly makes Whatsapp an enabler of conversations with familiar people. You simply just pick up from where you left off. No introductions needed.
Its lack of sophistication: Undoubtedly a welcome platform for people with varying knowledge of technology, age range and socio-economic status.
Abdul, my friend’s gateman, who barely speaks English sends Whatsapp voice notes to his contacts. I happened on this while conducting research for a solar project in 2017. We discovered voice messaging was a widely used feature on Whatsapp among users with low literacy level and huge language barrier like Abdul.
My dad was the first to test Whatsapp’s video calling feature with me when it launched in 2016.
Whatsapp Number
“Is this your Whatsapp number?” a common question asked in informal settings when exchanging numbers with a potential customer, old friend or acquittance in Nigeria. Having the app somehow supersedes having a phone number.
#Whatsappdown
The time was 10:41pm when my phone rang. Still wide awake chatting away on Telegram through the desktop app, I reluctantly reached for my phone wondering who the caller might be.
It was my dad. He had tried chatting with me on Whatsapp but couldn’t figure what was wrong with the app. Checking through phone notifications after the call, I ended up on Twitter. My dad was right, #Whatsappdown was trending.
To many many Nigerians, Whatsapp is the Internet, so with the app’s brief downtime in 2017 came some panic — What happened to the Internet?
A failed attempt to forward a BC, inability to chat with group members or an abrupt crash of your app amid a family discussion was enough reason to think you’ve been yanked off the internet. The hashtag was a globally discussed topic but its impact was more pronounced on this side of the world. A reflection of how deeply woven Whatsapp is into the Nigerian social fabric.
Interesting read: Tweets about Nigerian parents on Whatsapp
#ForwardAsReceived
Dark Social, a prevalent yet barely explored phenomenon has Whatsapp as a primary driver in Nigeria and anywhere else. You can’t track how many times a BC was read, the pass-along rate of a meme or video that “falls into Whatsapp”. That’s Dark Social at play.
The virality we see on mainstream social media platforms is a fraction of how far stories travel in the dark social ecosystem.
I first caught sight of the rumour surrounding the ongoing Voters Registration exercise in a Whatsapp group.
Soon enough, it hit mainstream social media and caused quite a stir, eventually compelling relevant authorities to wade into the matter.
The BC phenomenon is a clear indication of Whatsapp’s dominance in Nigeria. From news excerpts to bible passages, festive greetings, random memes, heavy audio/video files and questionable health information from concerned parents; but for a few discerning users, BCs easily hold as the truth. A powerful tool for individuals, governments and businesses.
I’m currently experimenting an advertising model based entirely on BCs.
Whatsapp Admin
Africans are largely communal and Whatsapp rides on the wave of groups as a natural environment for many users in Nigeria. An average user is active in at least 2 groups, one likely being the immediate family group. I live in a small estate that runs four or more active groups on Whatsapp dedicated to residents for different purposes.
Groups typically have an admin team who ensure members adhere to rules, and like a SWAT team, admins swiftly suspend or permanently eject violating members from the group. To be a Whatsapp Admin is no doubt an enviable status in Nigeria.
Observations, Predictions and Random Ideas
If Facebook boasts of about 20M users in Nigeria, I assume Whatsapp will be 2x that size or more. Hypothetically, we are looking at >50% of Nigeria’s internet population.
This size pales in comparison to India‘s 200 million active users, but Nigeria is an interesting market and what are the possibilities for Whatsapp with these users?
Commerce: Whatsapp plays host to many small businesses in Nigeria. Several Instagram businesses have Whatsapp numbers displayed in their bio, indicating Whatsapp as the place where deals are closed.Telcos like MTN are offering data plans to facilitate business through the app. The launch of Whatsapp Business only formalizes business activities on the app.
Payments: P2P payments have previously surfaced through 3rd-party apps on platforms like BBM, but I see this take off with Whatsapp. For one, more Nigerians are embracing digital payments through mobile and USSD banking so moving money through Whatsapp should be a much easier experience. With its recent launch of payments to some users in India , Whatsapp could be making moves to roll-out this feature in Nigeria in a not-so-distant future if it checks all the regulatory boxes.
Customer Engagement: Large enterprises already use Whatsapp as a customer support channel through software like Zendesk so Whatsapp’s enterprise solution is a brilliant monetisation idea in my opinion.
I have to admit am not sure about Nigeria’s e-commerce ecosystem, especially since Konga’s sale, but I wonder if an integration with Whatsapp would have pushed active customers beyond 184,000 as widely reported in 2016.
Content Distribution: Although, some publishers have tested with news alerts, it’s not an approach I’m excited about. Too tedious and potentially encourages a high level of nuisance. In disguise, it’s the email newsletter nightmare all over again.
News curation is an activity I already see happen in groups where some members make it their responsibility to share news excerpts from different publishers daily.
In an era where publishers struggle to monetize their platforms, a feature built-in to enable content discovery and consumption from different publishers could prove useful in Nigeria.
Here’s how I think Whatsapp could make this work:
Contrary to news alerts, users only go through one entry point to access news they are interested in. This is a probably a bad idea to publishers for its lack of two-way communication and some other much needed features but I think it’s a better experience for Whatsapp users. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Advertising: Here’s where things could go left. Giving brands direct access to users will be greaaaat for the brands but ultimately bad for Whatsapp. Users already deal with intrusion from random contacts and addition to groups without permission; brands advertising directly to users will likely worsen the overall experience.
An alternative could be text ads embedded in articles displayed on the app, assuming there’s a built-in feature for reading articles without leaving the app. Techcrunch also predicts sponsored listings as an ad opportunity, fingers crossed.
As the lines increasingly blur between social networking and instant messaging, and as more Nigerians discover the internet through Whatsapp, whatever the app morphs into will significantly influence the behaviour of many users online and probably go down in history as a transformational journey for several Nigerians.
