Rocket Internet’s Nigerian Amazon clone blasts off

German cloning giant Rocket Internet has officially launched Kasuwa, its Nigerian Amazon-style ecommerce site.

The company made its first big forays onto the continent with a number of properties in South Africa. These include a stake in Groupon, shoe and clothing site Zando, and make up testing service Glossybox.

Prior to the launch, Nigerian tech blogs had speculated on what kind of site Rocket Internet might launch in the country.

Techloy were right in the end, punting for an ecommerce site selling DVDs, books, and consumer electronics. Technesstivity meanwhile said that the company was launching an online clothing store.

While Techloy was right in the short term, the Technesstivity predicted clothing store is set to launch in the near future.

As is the case with most Rocket Internet properties, Kasuwa offer free delivery and only requires users to pay for their goods once they’ve actually been delivered. Global courier giant DHL will reportedly be handling a section of the delivery service.

When news of the site first emerged Techloy said the company was hiring aggressively in the country and may well have taken aboard some ex-employees from Kalahari Nigeria, which was scuppered by parent company MIH in late 2011.

Rocket Internet has a massive portfolio of companies around the world, with most operating on a select few models. The Amazon-clone model for instance has already gone live in the form of Lazada, which currently operates in Indonesia, Egypt, the Philippines and Thailand.