Silicon Savannahs and motorcycle taxis: A Southern perspective on the frontiers of platform urbanism

Abstract

The rise of digital platforms in urban Africa has been rightfully critiqued as an example of global techno-capital seeking new frontiers of profit among precarious lives and from fragile infrastructures. However, this techno-pessimistic reading of so-called “platform urbanism” leaves us with a bleak outlook on the future of the African city as a mere site of accumulation and exploitation. In this article, in contrast, we offer a more ambivalent analysis of a compelling trend in several African cities: the platformization of motorcycle taxis. Our focus is on Kigali and Nairobi two cities that have been celebrated as “Silicon Savannahs” for their commitment to digital innovation, and where motorcycle taxis have long contributed to the regular movement of people and goods. Deploying a Southern urban perspective on the digitization of these mobility systems, we make two contributions to platform urbanism debates. First, we show that this phenomenon dovetails two decades of supply-side, developmental investments in the connectivity infrastructure upon which platforms rely and are predicated. Second, we show that platform urbanism is not simply a case of global technologies landing in Africa. It is characterized by a proliferation of experiments in which domestic and international capital coalesce, platforms intersect in dynamic ways with informal economies, and local adaptations are necessary for survival. Overall, we argue that the platformization of motorcycles in these cities (and arguably others) constitutes a dynamic and evolving landscape that requires more careful conceptual and empirical attention.

ALGORITHMIC SUTURING: Platforms, Motorcycles and the ‘Last Mile’ in Urban Africa

“…Some of the digital innovation sits in the e‐hailing space (allowing end‐users to connect to riders through mobile phone‐based applications such as Uber boda or Safeboda) (see Doherty, 2020). However, the invisible majority are focused on improving the business models of companies that utilize motorcycles for last‐mile, express and on‐demand deliveries (Cirolia et al ., 2023).…”

“…All these players have thus contributed to an explosion of platform experiments addressing not just motorcycle mobilities but many facets of the Kenyan economy, from payment technologies to agriculture (Mann and Iazzolino, 2021). While some of these platforms are international, accessing venture capital to finance the trial and interaction of their offerings, several experiments are in fact driven by home‐grown, bootstrapped startups, many of which only last a few months after being launched and then wilt away or pivot their business models to find more profitable last‐mile market niches (Cirolia et al ., 2023).…”

“…pivot their business models to find more profitable last-mile market niches (Cirolia et al, 2023). As we will see, the motorcycle is just one, albeit crucial, component of the platform arrangements through which last-mile startups 'see' the city.…”