When it comes to social media, Facebook and Instagram don’t hold a candle to What’s App in Africa. With its success, of course, have come knock-offs, known as ‘What’s App mods,’ which afford enhanced features, but come at a cost of lax security. One reason for the high uptake of WhatsApp mods is the wider range of features on offer. “They’re obviously a big draw for a lot of people because you can do a lot of things with them that you can’t do with WhatsApp,” says Bryan Pon, co-founder of Caribou Data, an analytics and insights firm focused on emerging markets. For instance, GB WhatsApp, the most widely used WhatsApp mod across major African markets, allows users operate multiple accounts, restore deleted messages and send and receive larger media files (up to 50 megabytes compared to 16 megabytes on WhatsApp).
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA