{"id":442,"date":"2015-10-30T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmushava.wordpress.com\/2015\/10\/30\/mazwi-the-bookstore-of-the-future\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T15:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T15:35:28","slug":"mazwi-the-bookstore-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=442","title":{"rendered":"Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;   Normal  0          false  false  false    EN-US  X-NONE  X-NONE                                                                          &lt;![endif]--><br \/><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    &lt;![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; \/* Style Definitions *\/  table.MsoNormalTable  {mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";  mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;  mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;  mso-style-noshow:yes;  mso-style-priority:99;  mso-style-qformat:yes;  mso-style-parent:\"\";  mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;  mso-para-margin-top:0in;  mso-para-margin-right:0in;  mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;  mso-para-margin-left:0in;  line-height:115%;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  font-size:11.0pt;  font-family:\"Calibri\",\"sans-serif\";  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} &lt;![endif]--><\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"float: left;margin-right: 1em;text-align: left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"https:\/\/gm1.ggpht.com\/HcBYXw5huECNQvf1odt7q9FtQC5rl1v1v0CqKjNbq4vAomNPns55RrAo0D0WM8kjPnQP2nVMrHQYGgKjG-XE5v04OHZNLCfDE3pyKpgmBNFj9sX4cQx7cj28j5PsAiXLRKAexRX-f0p5FF6g7cMflvuFPego6y5J4YWtnSsrhZsAB0MXm0KqYFx3Ds4WBjTVL6FJv983aSrsNFbXp5WCJ3IznstLpRRb-UJy3MCVCe4e6adxdo2_1VPLbq8cP7ZxVnGtTgTBKIqyYCMMzyOZuka8hsZjF2wxcvaAF2nyemTUZfWVT6NbL7VCvZzkcdaOmistie5dfsGzCIY8fw9n6gD0ilGIDY-swD71kCkK9hhG7Vs_sacfI44Ifjdpy0yIFOXHFk7Y15EYIOlYsJf-rsTSk5uWQjT2F2fYqNCWoVeyqYYFONJ1wkvnSYvGCWKjNhtLFD8-ke8hFL4XJN4B4wihiyZf6dGS0LDQlAQN2pv0uOlZrLESvt5ZXFGzLBmgoWzHr8WPO2bE1YHNJmfQysY8SoFvPqKFLiRglPGwJ-DjY_P2Sy_3Ifp_pKwOhwkcVSxnxloo9tbpwj4tZQj1tYLaIMdYRx-bnrpxYSxt33jXAh3Sc_fsS5-NvKq95VJQYxI4NvwIUXbeHYrzDYkEI7dIJgbrZzFXKbXdlkkhgF0Yeg=w1406-h669-l75-ft\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/gm1.ggpht.com\/HcBYXw5huECNQvf1odt7q9FtQC5rl1v1v0CqKjNbq4vAomNPns55RrAo0D0WM8kjPnQP2nVMrHQYGgKjG-XE5v04OHZNLCfDE3pyKpgmBNFj9sX4cQx7cj28j5PsAiXLRKAexRX-f0p5FF6g7cMflvuFPego6y5J4YWtnSsrhZsAB0MXm0KqYFx3Ds4WBjTVL6FJv983aSrsNFbXp5WCJ3IznstLpRRb-UJy3MCVCe4e6adxdo2_1VPLbq8cP7ZxVnGtTgTBKIqyYCMMzyOZuka8hsZjF2wxcvaAF2nyemTUZfWVT6NbL7VCvZzkcdaOmistie5dfsGzCIY8fw9n6gD0ilGIDY-swD71kCkK9hhG7Vs_sacfI44Ifjdpy0yIFOXHFk7Y15EYIOlYsJf-rsTSk5uWQjT2F2fYqNCWoVeyqYYFONJ1wkvnSYvGCWKjNhtLFD8-ke8hFL4XJN4B4wihiyZf6dGS0LDQlAQN2pv0uOlZrLESvt5ZXFGzLBmgoWzHr8WPO2bE1YHNJmfQysY8SoFvPqKFLiRglPGwJ-DjY_P2Sy_3Ifp_pKwOhwkcVSxnxloo9tbpwj4tZQj1tYLaIMdYRx-bnrpxYSxt33jXAh3Sc_fsS5-NvKq95VJQYxI4NvwIUXbeHYrzDYkEI7dIJgbrZzFXKbXdlkkhgF0Yeg=w1406-h669-l75-ft\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\" width=\"315\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small\"><span>Mazwi shopkeeper Tafadzwa Makura<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Imagine a world where anyone can wake up a published author. Mazwi Online Shop promises just that \u2013 and to abolish several other publishing protocols.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Forget about a publisher sitting on your manuscript \u2013 you can be now your own agent, editor, publisher, vendor and cheerleader from an integrative vendor dashboard.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi, an e-book marketplace for local publishers and independent authors founded by young technoprenuer Tafadzwa Makura in 2012, was developed to democratise the public space for anyone to be heard.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">The disruptive start-up stands out of Zimbabwe\u2019s hive of technological start-ups as a forward-thinking, make-it-happen e-commerce response to a cultural problem.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u00a0A growing number of previously unpublished authors are scrambling for vendor dashboards on the Zimbabwean version of Amazon.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cWe look to capitalise on failure by mainstream e-book markets such as Kindle Store, Nook and Ibooks offer a service that is sensitive to local realities,\u201d Makura told <i>Far South.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\"><i><br \/><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cThe expansive reach of these traditional players sometimes means a one-size-fit-all approach which is out of touch with emerging markets and we are progressively customising our service to answer the needs of the Zimbabwean market,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi is built around problems in today\u2019s book sector chiefly piracy and issues of accessibility, affordability and visibility of local books.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Besides mostly new authors, notables such as Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ignatius Mabasa feature prominently on the marketplace.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cThe immediate challenge was combating piracy and Mazwi came about to guarantee as much with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to protect books in the electronic format from being replicated,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">When customers purchases an e-book on the site, they can download it to their devices a maximum of six times after which they cannot download it. File-sharing is disenabled to curtail piracy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Moving away from international practice where one must have a Mastercard to purchase e-books, Mazwi has incorporated mobile money transactions which are in vogue locally.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cThe issue of payment methods was a challenge for both Zimbabwean authors and customers on the international marketplaces. We have incorporated local mobile money methods to make the transactions less cumbersome,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cYou will notice that with the other platforms, one needs credit which is seldom the case because people do not mostly keep their money in banks. We have noticed, for that more transactions are being made through mobile money transfers,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cOne of the more revolutionary aspects of Mazwi Online Shop is possibly the pricing model. While we do not control pricing, we encourage authors and publishers to consider the average Ecocash account \u2013 think of around $5.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cPricing around that and below makes business brisk because once you demand more than that, you are asking for money which is probably not already in the account. That way it may be harder to get someone to settle for the product,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi is also grafting in interactive plug-ins to connect writers directly to their audiences. The author page is a mini-website which offers readers the option of following their favourite writers to stay posted on their new projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi was initially pitched as an e-learning solution at the Zol Start-Up Challenge in 2012 but has since evolved into an e-book retailer.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">In 2010, the young men behind Mazwi pitched at British Council\u2019s Culture Shift. The idea behind the start-up confab was to connect players in the culture industries, chiefly the book sector, with technoprenuers and generate potential solutions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cWriters presented on problems we had already looked at. We reached semis again and had to compete for the finals a week later. During that window, we decided to make Mazwi a solution for the book sector,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi linked up with tech giant Binu, who in turn connected them to World Reader.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cWe got a seed fund and, in the same week, developed the application to allow readers to access e-books on their mobile phones, becoming the first African company after World Reader to develop reading apps for feature phones. By the time the finals came around we had already won. Three months later Econet introduced same service,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">The disruptive young man refused to stop there. Their app could only allow people to read while connected to Internet which was rather constricting because most people cannot afford unlimited connectivity in Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">\u201cSo we had to rework the entire system around the Amazon model but we had to carefully customise it for the local market,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">By July 2014, Mazwi had released an Android app to make books available for offline reading and later developed it into a platform-agnostic marketplace, equally functional on desktops and mobile phones.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">While Mazwi are not gatekeepers when it comes to content on the vendor dashboards, they require complicity with the Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">They have significantly introduced a region control mechanism for books limited by rights from circulating in certain regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><span style=\"line-height: 115%\">Mazwi looks to maximise their operations in Africa. \u201cWe are not thinking of going beyond the continent. African is the fastest growing region in terms of numbers and the economy. There are plenty of possibilities here,\u201d Makura said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mazwi shopkeeper Tafadzwa Makura Imagine a world where anyone can wake up a published author. Mazwi Online Shop promises just that \u2013 and to abolish several other publishing protocols.\u00a0 Forget about a publisher sitting on your manuscript \u2013 you can be now your own agent, editor, publisher, vendor and cheerleader from an integrative vendor dashboard.\u00a0 Mazwi, an e-book marketplace for local publishers and independent authors founded by young technoprenuer Tafadzwa Makura in 2012, was developed to democratise the public space for anyone to be heard. The disruptive start-up stands out of Zimbabwe\u2019s hive of technological start-ups as a forward-thinking, make-it-happen e-commerce response to a cultural problem. \u00a0A growing number of previously unpublished authors are scrambling for vendor dashboards on the Zimbabwean version of Amazon.\u00a0 \u201cWe look to capitalise on failure by mainstream e-book markets such as Kindle Store, Nook and Ibooks offer a service that is sensitive to local realities,\u201d Makura told Far South. \u201cThe expansive reach of these traditional players sometimes means a one-size-fit-all approach which is out of touch with emerging markets and we are progressively customising our service to answer the needs of the Zimbabwean market,\u201d he said. Mazwi is built around problems in today\u2019s book sector chiefly piracy and issues of accessibility, affordability and visibility of local books. Besides mostly new authors, notables such as Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ignatius Mabasa feature prominently on the marketplace. \u201cThe immediate challenge was combating piracy and Mazwi came about to guarantee as much with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to protect books in the electronic format from being replicated,\u201d Makura said. When customers purchases an e-book on the site, they can download it to their devices a maximum of six times after which they cannot download it. File-sharing is disenabled to curtail piracy. Moving away from international practice where one must have a Mastercard to purchase e-books, Mazwi has incorporated mobile money transactions which are in vogue locally. \u201cThe issue of payment methods was a challenge for both Zimbabwean authors and customers on the international marketplaces. We have incorporated local mobile money methods to make the transactions less cumbersome,\u201d Makura said. \u201cYou will notice that with the other platforms, one needs credit which is seldom the case because people do not mostly keep their money in banks. We have noticed, for that more transactions are being made through mobile money transfers,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the more revolutionary aspects of Mazwi Online Shop is possibly the pricing model. While we do not control pricing, we encourage authors and publishers to consider the average Ecocash account \u2013 think of around $5.\u00a0 \u201cPricing around that and below makes business brisk because once you demand more than that, you are asking for money which is probably not already in the account. That way it may be harder to get someone to settle for the product,\u201d he said. Mazwi is also grafting in interactive plug-ins to connect writers directly to their audiences. The author page is a mini-website which offers readers the option of following their favourite writers to stay posted on their new projects.\u00a0 Mazwi was initially pitched as an e-learning solution at the Zol Start-Up Challenge in 2012 but has since evolved into an e-book retailer.\u00a0 In 2010, the young men behind Mazwi pitched at British Council\u2019s Culture Shift. The idea behind the start-up confab was to connect players in the culture industries, chiefly the book sector, with technoprenuers and generate potential solutions. \u201cWriters presented on problems we had already looked at. We reached semis again and had to compete for the finals a week later. During that window, we decided to make Mazwi a solution for the book sector,\u201d Makura said. Mazwi linked up with tech giant Binu, who in turn connected them to World Reader. \u201cWe got a seed fund and, in the same week, developed the application to allow readers to access e-books on their mobile phones, becoming the first African company after World Reader to develop reading apps for feature phones. By the time the finals came around we had already won. Three months later Econet introduced same service,\u201d Makura said. The disruptive young man refused to stop there. Their app could only allow people to read while connected to Internet which was rather constricting because most people cannot afford unlimited connectivity in Zimbabwe. \u201cSo we had to rework the entire system around the Amazon model but we had to carefully customise it for the local market,\u201d Makura said. By July 2014, Mazwi had released an Android app to make books available for offline reading and later developed it into a platform-agnostic marketplace, equally functional on desktops and mobile phones. While Mazwi are not gatekeepers when it comes to content on the vendor dashboards, they require complicity with the Constitution.\u00a0 They have significantly introduced a region control mechanism for books limited by rights from circulating in certain regions.\u00a0 Mazwi looks to maximise their operations in Africa. \u201cWe are not thinking of going beyond the continent. African is the fastest growing region in terms of numbers and the economy. There are plenty of possibilities here,\u201d Makura said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-tech"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future? | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=442\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future? | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mazwi shopkeeper Tafadzwa Makura Imagine a world where anyone can wake up a published author. Mazwi Online Shop promises just that \u2013 and to abolish several other publishing protocols.\u00a0 Forget about a publisher sitting on your manuscript \u2013 you can be now your own agent, editor, publisher, vendor and cheerleader from an integrative vendor dashboard.\u00a0 Mazwi, an e-book marketplace for local publishers and independent authors founded by young technoprenuer Tafadzwa Makura in 2012, was developed to democratise the public space for anyone to be heard. The disruptive start-up stands out of Zimbabwe\u2019s hive of technological start-ups as a forward-thinking, make-it-happen e-commerce response to a cultural problem. \u00a0A growing number of previously unpublished authors are scrambling for vendor dashboards on the Zimbabwean version of Amazon.\u00a0 \u201cWe look to capitalise on failure by mainstream e-book markets such as Kindle Store, Nook and Ibooks offer a service that is sensitive to local realities,\u201d Makura told Far South. \u201cThe expansive reach of these traditional players sometimes means a one-size-fit-all approach which is out of touch with emerging markets and we are progressively customising our service to answer the needs of the Zimbabwean market,\u201d he said. Mazwi is built around problems in today\u2019s book sector chiefly piracy and issues of accessibility, affordability and visibility of local books. Besides mostly new authors, notables such as Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ignatius Mabasa feature prominently on the marketplace. \u201cThe immediate challenge was combating piracy and Mazwi came about to guarantee as much with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to protect books in the electronic format from being replicated,\u201d Makura said. When customers purchases an e-book on the site, they can download it to their devices a maximum of six times after which they cannot download it. File-sharing is disenabled to curtail piracy. Moving away from international practice where one must have a Mastercard to purchase e-books, Mazwi has incorporated mobile money transactions which are in vogue locally. \u201cThe issue of payment methods was a challenge for both Zimbabwean authors and customers on the international marketplaces. We have incorporated local mobile money methods to make the transactions less cumbersome,\u201d Makura said. \u201cYou will notice that with the other platforms, one needs credit which is seldom the case because people do not mostly keep their money in banks. We have noticed, for that more transactions are being made through mobile money transfers,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the more revolutionary aspects of Mazwi Online Shop is possibly the pricing model. While we do not control pricing, we encourage authors and publishers to consider the average Ecocash account \u2013 think of around $5.\u00a0 \u201cPricing around that and below makes business brisk because once you demand more than that, you are asking for money which is probably not already in the account. That way it may be harder to get someone to settle for the product,\u201d he said. Mazwi is also grafting in interactive plug-ins to connect writers directly to their audiences. The author page is a mini-website which offers readers the option of following their favourite writers to stay posted on their new projects.\u00a0 Mazwi was initially pitched as an e-learning solution at the Zol Start-Up Challenge in 2012 but has since evolved into an e-book retailer.\u00a0 In 2010, the young men behind Mazwi pitched at British Council\u2019s Culture Shift. The idea behind the start-up confab was to connect players in the culture industries, chiefly the book sector, with technoprenuers and generate potential solutions. \u201cWriters presented on problems we had already looked at. We reached semis again and had to compete for the finals a week later. During that window, we decided to make Mazwi a solution for the book sector,\u201d Makura said. Mazwi linked up with tech giant Binu, who in turn connected them to World Reader. \u201cWe got a seed fund and, in the same week, developed the application to allow readers to access e-books on their mobile phones, becoming the first African company after World Reader to develop reading apps for feature phones. By the time the finals came around we had already won. Three months later Econet introduced same service,\u201d Makura said. The disruptive young man refused to stop there. Their app could only allow people to read while connected to Internet which was rather constricting because most people cannot afford unlimited connectivity in Zimbabwe. \u201cSo we had to rework the entire system around the Amazon model but we had to carefully customise it for the local market,\u201d Makura said. By July 2014, Mazwi had released an Android app to make books available for offline reading and later developed it into a platform-agnostic marketplace, equally functional on desktops and mobile phones. While Mazwi are not gatekeepers when it comes to content on the vendor dashboards, they require complicity with the Constitution.\u00a0 They have significantly introduced a region control mechanism for books limited by rights from circulating in certain regions.\u00a0 Mazwi looks to maximise their operations in Africa. \u201cWe are not thinking of going beyond the continent. African is the fastest growing region in terms of numbers and the economy. There are plenty of possibilities here,\u201d Makura said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=442\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-30T11:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-25T15:35:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gm1.ggpht.com\/HcBYXw5huECNQvf1odt7q9FtQC5rl1v1v0CqKjNbq4vAomNPns55RrAo0D0WM8kjPnQP2nVMrHQYGgKjG-XE5v04OHZNLCfDE3pyKpgmBNFj9sX4cQx7cj28j5PsAiXLRKAexRX-f0p5FF6g7cMflvuFPego6y5J4YWtnSsrhZsAB0MXm0KqYFx3Ds4WBjTVL6FJv983aSrsNFbXp5WCJ3IznstLpRRb-UJy3MCVCe4e6adxdo2_1VPLbq8cP7ZxVnGtTgTBKIqyYCMMzyOZuka8hsZjF2wxcvaAF2nyemTUZfWVT6NbL7VCvZzkcdaOmistie5dfsGzCIY8fw9n6gD0ilGIDY-swD71kCkK9hhG7Vs_sacfI44Ifjdpy0yIFOXHFk7Y15EYIOlYsJf-rsTSk5uWQjT2F2fYqNCWoVeyqYYFONJ1wkvnSYvGCWKjNhtLFD8-ke8hFL4XJN4B4wihiyZf6dGS0LDQlAQN2pv0uOlZrLESvt5ZXFGzLBmgoWzHr8WPO2bE1YHNJmfQysY8SoFvPqKFLiRglPGwJ-DjY_P2Sy_3Ifp_pKwOhwkcVSxnxloo9tbpwj4tZQj1tYLaIMdYRx-bnrpxYSxt33jXAh3Sc_fsS5-NvKq95VJQYxI4NvwIUXbeHYrzDYkEI7dIJgbrZzFXKbXdlkkhgF0Yeg=w1406-h669-l75-ft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hardsouth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0\"},\"headline\":\"Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-30T11:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-25T15:35:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442\"},\"wordCount\":853,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gm1.ggpht.com\\\/HcBYXw5huECNQvf1odt7q9FtQC5rl1v1v0CqKjNbq4vAomNPns55RrAo0D0WM8kjPnQP2nVMrHQYGgKjG-XE5v04OHZNLCfDE3pyKpgmBNFj9sX4cQx7cj28j5PsAiXLRKAexRX-f0p5FF6g7cMflvuFPego6y5J4YWtnSsrhZsAB0MXm0KqYFx3Ds4WBjTVL6FJv983aSrsNFbXp5WCJ3IznstLpRRb-UJy3MCVCe4e6adxdo2_1VPLbq8cP7ZxVnGtTgTBKIqyYCMMzyOZuka8hsZjF2wxcvaAF2nyemTUZfWVT6NbL7VCvZzkcdaOmistie5dfsGzCIY8fw9n6gD0ilGIDY-swD71kCkK9hhG7Vs_sacfI44Ifjdpy0yIFOXHFk7Y15EYIOlYsJf-rsTSk5uWQjT2F2fYqNCWoVeyqYYFONJ1wkvnSYvGCWKjNhtLFD8-ke8hFL4XJN4B4wihiyZf6dGS0LDQlAQN2pv0uOlZrLESvt5ZXFGzLBmgoWzHr8WPO2bE1YHNJmfQysY8SoFvPqKFLiRglPGwJ-DjY_P2Sy_3Ifp_pKwOhwkcVSxnxloo9tbpwj4tZQj1tYLaIMdYRx-bnrpxYSxt33jXAh3Sc_fsS5-NvKq95VJQYxI4NvwIUXbeHYrzDYkEI7dIJgbrZzFXKbXdlkkhgF0Yeg=w1406-h669-l75-ft\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Tech\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=442\",\"name\":\"Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future? 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| Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=442","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mazwi \u2013 The Bookstore of the Future? | Blockspace","og_description":"Mazwi shopkeeper Tafadzwa Makura Imagine a world where anyone can wake up a published author. Mazwi Online Shop promises just that \u2013 and to abolish several other publishing protocols.\u00a0 Forget about a publisher sitting on your manuscript \u2013 you can be now your own agent, editor, publisher, vendor and cheerleader from an integrative vendor dashboard.\u00a0 Mazwi, an e-book marketplace for local publishers and independent authors founded by young technoprenuer Tafadzwa Makura in 2012, was developed to democratise the public space for anyone to be heard. The disruptive start-up stands out of Zimbabwe\u2019s hive of technological start-ups as a forward-thinking, make-it-happen e-commerce response to a cultural problem. \u00a0A growing number of previously unpublished authors are scrambling for vendor dashboards on the Zimbabwean version of Amazon.\u00a0 \u201cWe look to capitalise on failure by mainstream e-book markets such as Kindle Store, Nook and Ibooks offer a service that is sensitive to local realities,\u201d Makura told Far South. \u201cThe expansive reach of these traditional players sometimes means a one-size-fit-all approach which is out of touch with emerging markets and we are progressively customising our service to answer the needs of the Zimbabwean market,\u201d he said. Mazwi is built around problems in today\u2019s book sector chiefly piracy and issues of accessibility, affordability and visibility of local books. Besides mostly new authors, notables such as Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, NoViolet Bulawayo and Ignatius Mabasa feature prominently on the marketplace. \u201cThe immediate challenge was combating piracy and Mazwi came about to guarantee as much with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to protect books in the electronic format from being replicated,\u201d Makura said. When customers purchases an e-book on the site, they can download it to their devices a maximum of six times after which they cannot download it. File-sharing is disenabled to curtail piracy. Moving away from international practice where one must have a Mastercard to purchase e-books, Mazwi has incorporated mobile money transactions which are in vogue locally. \u201cThe issue of payment methods was a challenge for both Zimbabwean authors and customers on the international marketplaces. We have incorporated local mobile money methods to make the transactions less cumbersome,\u201d Makura said. \u201cYou will notice that with the other platforms, one needs credit which is seldom the case because people do not mostly keep their money in banks. We have noticed, for that more transactions are being made through mobile money transfers,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the more revolutionary aspects of Mazwi Online Shop is possibly the pricing model. While we do not control pricing, we encourage authors and publishers to consider the average Ecocash account \u2013 think of around $5.\u00a0 \u201cPricing around that and below makes business brisk because once you demand more than that, you are asking for money which is probably not already in the account. That way it may be harder to get someone to settle for the product,\u201d he said. Mazwi is also grafting in interactive plug-ins to connect writers directly to their audiences. The author page is a mini-website which offers readers the option of following their favourite writers to stay posted on their new projects.\u00a0 Mazwi was initially pitched as an e-learning solution at the Zol Start-Up Challenge in 2012 but has since evolved into an e-book retailer.\u00a0 In 2010, the young men behind Mazwi pitched at British Council\u2019s Culture Shift. The idea behind the start-up confab was to connect players in the culture industries, chiefly the book sector, with technoprenuers and generate potential solutions. \u201cWriters presented on problems we had already looked at. We reached semis again and had to compete for the finals a week later. During that window, we decided to make Mazwi a solution for the book sector,\u201d Makura said. Mazwi linked up with tech giant Binu, who in turn connected them to World Reader. \u201cWe got a seed fund and, in the same week, developed the application to allow readers to access e-books on their mobile phones, becoming the first African company after World Reader to develop reading apps for feature phones. By the time the finals came around we had already won. Three months later Econet introduced same service,\u201d Makura said. The disruptive young man refused to stop there. Their app could only allow people to read while connected to Internet which was rather constricting because most people cannot afford unlimited connectivity in Zimbabwe. \u201cSo we had to rework the entire system around the Amazon model but we had to carefully customise it for the local market,\u201d Makura said. By July 2014, Mazwi had released an Android app to make books available for offline reading and later developed it into a platform-agnostic marketplace, equally functional on desktops and mobile phones. While Mazwi are not gatekeepers when it comes to content on the vendor dashboards, they require complicity with the Constitution.\u00a0 They have significantly introduced a region control mechanism for books limited by rights from circulating in certain regions.\u00a0 Mazwi looks to maximise their operations in Africa. \u201cWe are not thinking of going beyond the continent. African is the fastest growing region in terms of numbers and the economy. There are plenty of possibilities here,\u201d Makura 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