Taxi apps

This one is slightly different. Uber is not so much stealing startups’ lunch but taking back what is theirs. Prior to Uber’s arrival on the continent, a few startups had attempted to set themselves up as the “Uber for Africa”. In South Africa, Snappcab remains but Zapacab never recovered from being forced to compete with such a corporate superpower. In Kenya and Nigeria, Easy Taxi has proven a worthy adversary, and says it has what it takes of stay in the game. Other startups may not be so lucky in what is an increasingly busy sector.

The lunch-stealing on Uber’s part may be yet to come. The company has already proven its versatility to African requirements by adding cash as a payment option in Nairobi, removing one advantage the likes of Easy Taxi and Maramoja originally had over it. The next logical step would be for Uber to add alternative methods of transport onto its platform. Motorcycle taxis are extremely common across the continent. Maramoja has already taken the leap by making them available to customers. Rwanda’s SafeMotos is building a whole business around connecting users to motorcycles. If Uber chooses to go down this route it really would be gobbling up a lunch it has not eaten before.

Focus wins

It isn’t all bad news for the African startups affected by these monster-sized lunch thieves. Large companies struggle to compete effectively on all fronts, and startups can benefit from the fact they are focused on one area rather than several, as is the case with the likes of Apple and Google. Startups need to work on differentiating themselves, with what Maramoja is doing a good example of this. Clarity of purpose helps, but startups should be willing to adjust their positioning based on what the market is telling them. Corporates are less agile.

Plenty of companies have survived after a tech giant tried to eat their lunch, though examples for African startups are few. FourSquare has survived the launch of Facebook’s “Places”. Apple’s iMessage did not kill the likes of GroupMe, TextPlus, or even BBM, as was predicted. Bit.ly, written off after Twitter embedded its own URL shortening, is still in business. Boxee survived Apple TV. There is hope, if what you’re doing is necessary and different.

Tom Jackson is the co-founder at DisruptAfrica.com, a website that focuses on Africa’s tech startup scene.