The best South African business story of the last decade might also be the least talked-about outside of tech circles. Here’s how Yoco went from their first transaction to a R12.5 billion business.

We recently walked into a networking event organised by Carta expecting the usual. Name tags, a few limp handshakes, and a room full of people performing interest in each other until they could politely leave. Most of these things feel like a corporate play date, where adults get herded into one space and told to mingle.

We were wrong.

When a South African customer wants to ask a business a question, their instinct is to send a WhatsApp message. They do it with their hairdresser, their mechanic, their dentist, and the guy who fixes their gate motor. It’s how commerce works here (and the rest of Africa). But most business websites still don’t accommodate this. Read more to find out why your South African customers don’t want to email you, and prefer WhatsApp instead.