Africa’s e-commerce potential comes with a long wait

Liao Xuhui’s two decades building a business in Africa show the long game required for China’s tech expansion. He first made substantial profits by wholesaling VCD players in Togo in 2003, turning RMB 300,000 into a nearly RMB 200,000 net profit per container. This early success in a seller’s market contrasts sharply with the challenges of later e-commerce ventures.

Amanbo, one of China’s earliest cross-border e-commerce platforms focused on Africa, faced critical infrastructure gaps. Slow internet speeds of five kilobytes per second, frequent power outages, and poor roads made online-only models unviable. This forced an omnichannel OSO model (online, social, offline), which is a lesson for other Asian firms looking to replicate domestic e-commerce success. Southeast Asian markets, while competitive, offer more developed infrastructure than Africa, making direct comparisons problematic.

The key takeaway for Asian tech companies is the need for extreme patience and adaptation. Liao Xuhui notes that African e-commerce only gained scale in the past three to five years, after years of market development. Any Asian company expecting to quickly build an "African Taobao" will likely just lay groundwork for later entrants. They must follow the market’s stage of development, not try to skip steps.