In a previous post I explained the importance of understanding the latticework, or mental model, for the industry you’re entering, before you enter it.

For Africa, an important mental model is the cost of data.

Virtually all Africans access the internet using mobile phones, and pay prepaid mobile data rates.

In South Africa, it costs R1,000 ($80) to download 1 Gig.

That is a lot of money. Especially when the average family earns R5,000pm ($400)

When building online products for Africa, you must be super-sensitive to how much data the product will consume.

Otherwise no one will be able to afford the data required to use your product.