Zimbabwean Dev Makes Waves On The Google Play Store With Simple WhatsApp Stickers App

In what has probably become one of the fastest growing applications ever developed locally, the Zimbabwe Stickers by Samanyika app has now gotten close to 60k downloads and a 4.5 star rating to go with it.

The application also seems to be extremely popular in a number of different countries with the following breakdown when it comes to % of download by countries:

Zimbabwe – 24%
Nigeria – 19%
Ghana – 12%
South Africa – 7%
Kenya – 6%

It’s a bit strange that West African countries are up there in terms of downloads but the developer – Ed Tatenda explained on his Twitter that the boom in downloads from Nigeria came about after the addition of Christmas and New Years stickers.

Is this the most popular application by locals?

It seems this is not the most popular application from a local developer but it’s a close second behind EcoCash with over a 100 000 downloads. This speaks to the popularity of WhatsApp in Zimbabwe. Some of the popular applications don’t come anywhere near this stickers app:

Vaya Africa – 10k+
Munch Zimbabwe – 5k+
Hwindi – 10k+
Dial a Delivery – 5k+
Steward Bank – 10k+

What makes the Zim stickers app so popular?

I started using the application many months ago but the interesting thing about this sticker pack is it plays perfectly into many trendy topics and thus becomes a relevant and much cooler way of communicating on WhatsApp.

Here are some of the stickers you’ll find whilst using this application:

Clearly there’s a bit of everything for users who are sports savvy, religious or just looking for funny references to things happening in our society.

The only criticisms I have are to do with the adverts and the low selection of stickers. Don’t get me wrong, the stickers that are there are quite brilliant but I feel there could be more. The adverts used to be very intrusive and would basically pop up after every single function. When I opened up the application this morning it seemed to me that the adverts weren’t popping up as frequently as they did which means the developers are listening to feedback.

Hopefully, they keep updating the application and the downloads keep pouring in…