Group buying has exploded in South Africa and shows no sign of slowing. Although some of the smaller ‘fly by night’ players have come and gone, there are plenty local group buying sites that are carving out a market for themselves. We are also seeing lots of international players entering our small local market with Google Deals, Facebook Deals, etc.
Jess is an entrepreneur who has profited from the global group buying craze. He started Ubuntu Deal late last year and within 6 months was acquired (100% acquisition) by local internet giant, Bid or Buy. International player Groupon also entered the market several months back with an acquisition of local player Twangoo. You can watch the Twangoo interview here.
I chat to Jess about his acquisition, subscriber and revenue growth post acquisition, which cities they have expanded to in South Africa and what his take is on the big international players entering the market (see below). I also asked if there is a market for group buying in Africa, his take on group buying on mobile, the Groupon IPO and the issue around group buying’s low barrier to entry.
The best quote from the interview from Jess regarding group buying in SA: “… Its really going to be 4-5 players left in our local market by the end of the year with some very interesting big players entering..”
Jess has contributed to Bandwidth Blog several times on the topic of social commerce expressing his opinion on Google’s foray into social commerce, Facebook Deals in South Africa, LivingSocial’s launch in South Africa, Google Offer’s imminent launch in South Africa, group buying in Africa, and his take on Groupon’s pending IPO.
Here’s the interview, click play below –
