Mapping of Digital Platforms and e-Commerce Emergence in Africa: Evidence from Senegal

Abstract

A global trend regarding the “platformization” of the internet has been, for years, emerging roughly across all traditional industries. It is reflected in the proliferation of digital platforms (DPs) based on the creation of new activities or the online expansion of offers traditionally available only physically (e.g., boutiques, supermarkets). Thus, digital platforms are a new springboard of development opportunities for all businesses, and Africa, with demographic (more than 1.2 billion customers), economic (middle-class boom), and technological (internet and smartphone penetration) dynamism, represents a huge potential market for the DP industry. This exploratory research is based on a qualitative approach applied to the case of Senegalese DPs. From its finding, we have a mapping of DPs and a classifying typology of the types of actors involved, according to their specialization and their paradigmatic orientation. New insights into how DP organizations and the firms within them operate and create value are proposed as well as a new conceptual framework for the articulation of DPs, specifically those particularly adapted to the African context. This work opens avenues for future research linked to the scale of the new challenges related to marketing and managerial issues and the new business models that have recently been developed by innovative local actors (TukkiJamm, ShopMeWay, etc.).