Social Media Entrepreneurship, an Agent for Sustainable Development in Developing Countries: Case Study of South Africa

As a result of the ever-improving network accessibility, the past two decades have witnessed a rapid increase in the number of social media platforms and subscribers to these networks. These platforms facilitate users to create, share, and interact with content, information, and other users. Social media platforms are indiscriminate, allowing all subscribers to utilise their facilities equally, resulting in content sharing and interaction across races and geographical boundaries. Young people have seized the potential of social media platforms, improving their skills in content creation and earning income from sharing their content. The potential of social media platforms for entrepreneurship in developing countries comes with the need to address the Social Protection issues that come with this development. Motivated by the need to explore this new phenomenon, the study investigated the existence of social media entrepreneurship in marginalised communities in South Africa and the social protection issues that come with it. This interpretive study interviewed young social media entrepreneurs from marginalised communities in South Africa to confirm the existence of social media entrepreneurship and considered the social protection issues involved. The study applied thematic analysis using Atlas.ti to analyse qualitative data collected from interviews and document analysis. The study confirmed the existence of social media entrepreneurship and its contribution to sustainable development. The findings will contribute to policies on social protection for Social Media content creators in developing countries. The study will also contribute to the development of legal frameworks to protect these marginalised platform workers.