
They might find it more comfortable to use stay on these platforms for most tasks rather than straying to the other parts of the internet
Habit: a lot of people buy a smartphone just so they can be on social media. Perception: Telegram is generally considered as safer than WhatsApp so in countries such as Ethiopia, Russia and Iran there are thriving Telegram communities. Some telcos even offer unlimited WhatsApp and Facebook if you sign up with them. Part of the reason for this is, of course, the fact that a lot of mobile network operators (who double as the largest internet service providers too) offer various social media data bundles which are often cheaper than regular data bundles. For the majority of people in Zimbabwe, WhatsApp gobbles the bulk of their data while Twitter, Telegram and Facebook also have thriving communities. We have seen it year in and year out when POTRAZ publishes its reports. In Zimbabwe, just like in a lot of third world countries, social media makes up the internet for most people. The third world where WhatsApp is the internet Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. You know those countries where gigabit internet is kind of the norm. We would happily share files using links to various cloud services just like they do in the developed world. In an ideal world, we would all have access to a fast, affordable and unfettered internet connection.
The thing is for most people apps like WhatsApp and Telegram are the beginning and the end of the internet so it doesn’t make sense to ask them to use services such as Google Drive, Uptobox, Dropbox and OneDrive to share links.
Recently I was part of a conversion where people discussed easy ways to share files using social media apps like WhatsApp and Telegram including problems they have faced when doing so.