Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Understanding African Markets for Mobile Games - Cordel Robbin-Coker (Carry1st)

Episode Summary

Today’s guest has a background in investment banking and a passion for mobile games. His mission is to bring the world of interactives to Africa and to connect Africa to the world. Get ready for a fascinating, deep dive into the mobile gaming markets across the fastest-growing continent.

Episode Notes

Cordel Robbin-Coker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carry1st, the leading mobile games and content apps publisher and developer for African consumers. Cordel is based in Capetown, South Africa.

Questions Cordel Answered in this Episode:

What are some of the differences between investing in businesses in the U.S. and investing in businesses in Africa or is it the same process across continents?
What early-stage tech business investments in Africa stick out to you as successes or failures?
How difficult is it for you to localize your products across different African countries? And what is your approach?
What is it like for consumers to download apps in any of the key African countries you’re focused on?
What does your ideal app partner look like?

Timestamp:

1:43 Cordel’s story from Sierra Leone to investment banking to Carry1st
5:27 Accelerating secular growth across Africa
6:46 How investment opportunities compare between the U.S. and Africa
10:57 What is Carry1st?
14:36 The strategy behind Carry1st Trivia
18:06 Tackling the diversity of African countries
22:48 User experience for African consumers when downloading apps
27:50 Two categories of partners that would be a good fit for us

Quotes:

(5:40-6:07) “[Africa] is the fastest-growing continent in almost any way you can imagine. People are starting to move into the middle class in a way you saw in Asia probably 20-30 years ago. And as that happens, there is an appetite for a really wide range of goods and services. Everything that you have and use day-to-day, people on the continent aspire to or/and are beginning to have. So, it creates a cool opportunity to build businesses and serve people.”

(20:27-20:38) “Kenya has the most advanced mobile money system in the world, called M-Pesa. And, there are statistics that say something like 50% of the GDP of the country flows through M-Pesa on an annual basis.”