As competition grows intense, companies are seeing language as a powerful tool to win more market shares, and they are prioritizing highly populated countries with indigenous languages.

Clubhouse has announced the addition of 3 Nigerian languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba to the audio platform. According to information received from the company, the language localization support is aimed at making the platform more accessible to Nigerians who don’t speak English or who simply prefer local-language alternatives.

It is coming at the same time LinkedIn is introducing Hindi, targeting about 500 million Indians. Hindi is a language spoken or understood by more than half a billion people in India and over 600 million people globally, and will be the first Indian regional language to be supported by the social network.

Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, and make up the country’s most spoken languages. But besides the three languages, Clubhouse has rolled out other 10: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional (Taiwan), Farsi / Persian, Hausa, Igbo, Marathi, Nepali, Somali, Thai, Turkish and Yoruba.

For Clubhouse, the Language localization means that the app experience, such as prompts, notifications, descriptions, topics, and more, will be in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba when the languages are selected. For example, When someone joins the app, the onboarding language will now be in their local language. If someone wants to start a room, they will see “+Room” prompt and selections all in their local language. This means that people who join clubs like Yoruba Palava, IGBO, Naija House, etc, will not only have discussions about culture and history in their local languages but experience Clubhouse in them too.

LinkedIn service already supports 25 languages, but said in addition, its website and mobile apps will give users the option to access their feed, profile, and messages in Hindi. Users will also be able to create content in Hindi through LinkedIn’s desktop and mobile apps, it said.

Though India is a major market for several global services, LinkedIn has found it hard to win a significant number of users. India accounts for just over 6% of over 1.3 billion visits LinkedIn garners in a month, according to analytics firm SimilarWeb. Out of its 800 million global users, LinkedIn says it has only over 82 million users in India, more than 20 million of whom joined the service in the last three years.

The support of Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and 10 other languages follows a global trend as the language localisation feature is one of the most requested features on the app outside of the United States. Clubhouse initially rolled out support French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Malayalam, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish, Tamil and Telugu. Overall, the app has support for 26 languages on Android with more on the way.

In the coming months, LinkedIn said it will work towards widening the range of job opportunities available for Hindi speaking professionals across industries. It is also looking to add more Hindi publishers and creators in the coming weeks to boost engagement in Hindi on the platform.

A masterpiece is a great work piece from a master! And every one of us can create a masterpiece if we commit, dedicate and pursue to master something.

As 2022 arrives, think of one thing you will like to master. If you do that very well, you can create a masterpiece. Yes, master that piece – and own a masterpiece!

Become a master!

Let me congratulate Tekedia Capital portfolio startup, Boundlesspay, for releasing its blockchain-native app which makes it possible to transfer money at zero fees. Yes, do remittance without any fee. Engineered by my hometown Isuikwuato Abia state boy, Franklin Peters Odoemenam, they have elevated the game with a new dimension:  accept payments in cryptocurrencies through phone number or email address. Yes, no need for a crypto wallet, just email and phone number.

BoundlessPay which began life in Nigeria now operates from Dubai after Nigeria’s policy changes in the crypto world.  Last month, it acquired two companies in London and Mauritius as it begins its global playbook.

Please go and download BoundlessPay and experience the next big deal.

The 2000s provided the voice telephony era in Africa. The 2010s provided the mobile internet era. The 2020s will engineer the application utility era where the combinatorial and re-combinatorial power of cloud computing, mobile internet and software will redesign market sectors across territories in Africa.

This is the cambrian moment of entrepreneurial capitalism and mobile internet is powering it. New business models will be invented and new ordinance in markets will evolve.

It’s here – begin to build because new empires will emerge as market structures will be transformed. Every sector will see changes in Africa.

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment #1: We can’t write our problems away with codes.

I don’t know of a software that can make affordable bread and water. In 2019, Nigerians spent 56.7% of household income on food, this year, there’s a report on Business Day that the number has risen to 101% a month, thanks to underwhelming supply and productivity. Nigerians won’t eat software. We need to read meaning into these numbers.

Startups that are serious about solving Africa’s problems at some point must begin to Resolve Supply, demand is not the problem, you can always aggregate after building supply resolution stacks. Until Innovators begin to Resolve Supply, their Total Addressable Markets will continue to shrink since any increase in price of food (which is only going up and up) will send more and more people below the poverty line eroding the purchasing power of the nation.

We’re not at par with America where Supply is largely Unbounded. Innovators must innovate meaningfully, else it’s all a convoluted head rush.

My Response: xx information improves market inefficiencies. Using software, logistics startups now synchronize when farmers harvest, trucks arrive and move those produce to the processing centers. By doing just that, waste is reduced. Africa does produce decent tonnage of food but the problem is that most are wasted. If you reduce that waste, you have fixed a problem.

If that efficiency improves for wheat, that “affordable bread” will happen. These things are linked. You need to start somewhere. You may not see the connections between a trucking company and the price of bread but those who look at end-to-end logistics do.

In other words, from seeding to harvesting, you can do many things that will reduce the cost of bread even when you are not making bread.

“Startups that are serious about solving Africa’s problems at some point must begin to Resolve Supply, demand is not the problem” – I do not really agree generally. Nigeria has about 30 million who earn income (most minimum wage) and those power the other 180m. No matter how you look at it, that is very small and it is a demand problem because of purchasing power. That is why companies like Shoprite, Mr. Price struggle.

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has selected three telecom companies as qualified bidders for the license of Nigeria’s 5G spectrum, the telecom industry regulator announced Thursday.

In a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs NCC, Ikechukwu Adinde, the Commission said MTN Nigeria Plc., Mafab Communications Limited and Airtel Networks Limited have so far been selected to bid for the 5G auction.

It also reaffirms the date and time of the Mock Auction, which is scheduled to hold on Friday, December 10, 2021 at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by 11:00 a.m., while the Main Auction will hold on Monday, December 13, 2021.

“Consistent with its regulatory principle of open and transparent auction, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced that three telecoms companies have qualified as approved bidders of the forthcoming 3.5 gigahertz (Ghz) spectrum auction for the deployment of Fifth generation (5G) networks in the country.

“The qualified bidders that have met the criteria for participation in the licensing process of 3.5Ghz spectrum, including payment of the stipulated Intention to Bid Deposit (IBD) as outlined in the Information Memorandum (IM), are include MTN Nigeria Plc., Mafab Communications Limited and Airtel Networks Limited.

“Consequently, the stage is now set for the three companies to participate in the Main Auction as well as in the mandatory Mock Auction process, which will come as a precursor to the Main Auction.

“The Commission has also reaffirmed the dates for the conduct of both the Mock Auction and the Main Auction. The Mock Auction is scheduled to hold on Friday, December 10, 2021 at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by 11:00 a.m., while the Main Auction will hold on Monday, December 13, 2021 at the same venue and at the same time,” the Commission said.

Nigeria is among a few countries in Africa leading the push for 5G deployment. Though the roll out had faced parliamentary questions earlier, borne out of safety concerns about 5G technology, the Senate later gave approval for the deployment.

NCC had last month, pegged the reserved price of the spectrum license at $197.4 million (N75 billion). The regulator said only licensees, who make down payment of 10 percent of the reserved bid price and with 100 per cent regulatory compliance would be allowed to participate in the auction while licensees with outstanding debts that have secured NCC’s approval for a payment plan will be allowed to participate in the auction.

The auction comes with a 10-year spectrum license and a minimum requirement of an operational Universal Access Service Licence (UASL). However, new entrants or licensees without a UASL will be required to obtain a UASL operational license to be qualified for the 5G license.

So far, it seems that only the three selected companies, MTN Nigeria Plc., Mafab Communications Limited and Airtel Networks Limited, have met these criteria.