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Tomiva Ibukunle, a The 21-year-old entrepreneur in Lagos, Nigeria, started her clothing and accessories business two months ago. It uses WhatsApp to advertise its products and process orders from customers, usually receiving 20 orders a day. But on October 5, when WhatsApp was downgraded worldwide (along with other Facebook platforms) for eight hours, her business took a big hit. “I just started my brand and use WhatsApp for business because it’s easy. But when I didn’t have access to it, I started to worry because I had just put the new items I received in my status and sent a few to my clients. “, says Ibukunle. “I finished the day with five orders and wondered where I would start if WhatsApp didn’t work because all my customers were there.”
Although the shutdown of Facebook was an inconvenience for many users in the United States and Europe, its effects were felt much more strongly in other parts of the world, where the company and its platforms are extremely dominant. In Nigeria, WhatsApp is the main means of communication with the family both at home and abroad, and is also used for business. Over 95% of Nigeria’s 33 million social media users use the platform. Having everyone on the same platform can be convenient, but the interruption shows that Nigeria’s dependence on the app could be catastrophic – and that it’s time to look for alternatives.
When WhatsApp went down in Nigeria, panic ensued, accompanied by rumors that the service would never return. “I sent a message to my daughter, but it didn’t work out. I thought it was a network problem until my nephew told me it wasn’t,” said Nkechinyere Peters, who lives in Umuahia. “Then I was worried because WhatsApp is our main means of communication. What if something was happening and she wanted to call me? Or did I need help with something important?” Worse, Peters heard that WhatsApp would be deleted completely. “I believed,” she says. “Everyone around me did it.” The belief that the instant messaging app will not return has led many to worry, unsure of what to do – and how to communicate – if the rumor turns out to be a reality.
Other people with families who are far away from them share the same fear. “My grandmother is old and sick,” said Chiamaka Eze, who is from Nigeria but lives in Benin. “And like her favorite grandson, she sometimes calls me on video when my parents or staff aren’t around to help her get her medication. But during the break, I couldn’t help her and panicked that I would take the wrong medicine because she was home alone. “
Interruptions like this not only stop communication, but also put people at risk, as many important services are delivered through the platform. For example, WhatsApp hosts a 24-hour hotline from Nigeria for mentally conscious people for people seeking counseling or emergency care. Last year, WEST magazine reported that over 10,000 people have spoken to MANI since 2016.
And when it comes to business, WhatsApp is the preferred platform over Instagram and Facebook Marketplace. WhatsApp maintains business profiles and virtual catalogs that allow customers to find information about products or services that interest them. It has become popular with entrepreneurs because customers trust the platform because “they see the items in real time as we add them to our status. There is also some closeness as we communicate in private, ”says Orji Eke, a fashion designer. But the benefits that WhatsApp offers for business are debatable – and entrepreneurs who rely on it are harmed – once the service goes down.
Atsu Davo, CEO and founder of BitSika, a payment app that helps people send money to different countries, says a company controlling WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook is a ticking time bomb for those who rely almost exclusively on these services. “If we want to think about a real solution for the future,” he says, “situations like this are a good case for decentralization.”
WhatsApp is successful because so many people are in it, but there are other possibilities. For people living in Nigeria, alternatives to the WhatsApp messaging app include Telegram or Signal. These applications have privacy features that are not available in WhatsApp and have an open source API. Home applications such as SoftTalk Messenger are also available. SoftTalk offers a service for making international calls directly from the application and has a shopping function.
The interruption showed that Nigerians need to move to other applications, but for that to happen, there must be attractive options that meet the standard of what Nigerians are used to. Investors need to fund local applications and those that are yet to be developed – such an investment will ensure that other options are available and that communication is still possible the next time this happens.
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