Business software · Proposal
Dwadie
Catalogue, orders and payment on the channel African commerce already runs on.
Built for Shops already selling on WhatsApp
Meet commerce where it is
WhatsApp reaches 97% of internet users in Kenya, 96% in South Africa and 95% in Nigeria. It is the default business software of the African small trader, and it is free.
Any paid product here is positioned against free, not against a competitor.
A structural subsidy worth understanding
Meta made service conversations free in late 2024 and now charges per template message rather than per conversation. A customer messaging a shop and the shop replying is zero marginal cost — exactly the African use case.
Why WhatsApp Payments will not arrive and save anyone
India and Brazil each have a single regulator-mandated instant payment rail Meta could integrate once. Africa has 54 regulators and dozens of incompatible mobile-money systems — and the incumbents will not hand Meta the payment layer.
So WhatsApp in Africa stays a conversation layer bolted onto someone else's rails. That is precisely the space this product occupies.
This is a researched proposal, not a commitment. Nothing here has been validated with a paying customer yet.