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Rethinking the global publishing economy for writers in the Global South

Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed a quiet revolution in the publishing world. Disillusioned with the constraints of legacy media, journalists, essayists, poets, and commentators have embraced platforms like Substack, Ghost, and Beehiiv to write on their own terms.

For many, the idea of building an audience without gatekeepers—and getting paid directly through subscriptions—has redefined the economics of writing.

Substack, in particular, has grown into a cultural and commercial force. With over 2 million paid subscriptions and top writers earning six- or seven-figure incomes, it has been hailed as a democratising tool in media’s post-institutional era [^1].

But scratch beneath the surface, and a different picture emerges—one where the infrastructure of independence often excludes the very regions where it’s most needed.

To monetise a Substack publication, writers must connect a Stripe account. But Stripe is only available in around 46 countries—primarily concentrated in North America, Europe, and parts of East Asia. That leaves creators in large swathes of Africa, South America, the Middle East, and South Asia with no native way to get paid.

This is not merely a technical oversight. It is the result of a wider phenomenon scholars are now calling platform colonialism, essentially a system in which digital tools reflect and reproduce global inequalities rather than resolve them [^2].

As Nigerian writer and editor Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún put it:

“For many African creators, participating in the creator economy is a bit like working in a city where you’re not allowed to open a bank account.” [^3]

For every viral newsletter in New York or London, there are dozens of silenced voices in Lagos, Lahore, or La Paz—stifled not by a lack of ideas, but by a lack of access.

Enter Scriba: A Platform for the Rest of the World

What if we flipped the model?

What if we built a writing platform that began not in Silicon Valley but in Nairobi, Mumbai, or Recife?

One that understood local currencies, unstable internet, multilingual publishing, and the uneven terrains of digital finance?

That’s the vision behind Scriba—a conceptual alternative to Substack that reimagines digital publishing infrastructure with the Global South included in the model.

Features that Matter
Instead of relying solely on Stripe or PayPal, Scriba would integrate with a variety of payment providers that operate in the global south. This would include

• Flutterwave  which operates across over 30 African countries

• Paystack popular in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya

• Razorpay in India

• Pix and Mercado Pago in Brazil

• Wise and Payoneer for international bank transfers

• USDC/crypto wallets for censorship-resistant and borderless payments
  

These integrations would be complemented by mobile money options like M-Pesa, giving creators full agency regardless of traditional banking infrastructure. It is doable and with advanced in technology it is more about commitment than capability.

In many parts of the Global South, informal economies and mobile-first behaviours dominate. Payment infrastructure must meet people where they are—not the other way around.

Scriba wouldn’t just be for text.

• Writers could publish essays, newsletters, or poetry

• Creators could also decide whether to embed audio or video, start a podcast, or offer downloadable content

• Paid subscriptions could be tiered, time-limited, or donation-based

• Publications could be co-authored or community-run with transparent revenue splits

 Rather than relying on a single algorithm or global trending feed, Scriba would use regional curators and editorial highlights. There would be language filters and localisation and ultimately support for translation and multilingual content

 Imagine discovering a Tamil political columnist, a Yoruba cultural critic, and a Quechua poet on the same platform—all paid fairly and seen globally.

 This would be great opportunity for creator owned economics where the platform would prioritise the following.

Low, transparent fees (e.g., 10% platform cut, maxed and flat)
Full ownership of IP and mailing lists
Analytics dashboards that work even on low-bandwidth devices
Optional community tiers, micro-crowdfunding, and collective publishing models

Why Scriba, and Why Now?

 The creator economy is booming—but unevenly. According to a 2023 report by Linktree, 1 in 5 full-time creators still earn under $1,000 per year [^4]. For creators outside dominant markets, the hurdles are even higher because of a lack of payment gateways, internet costs, platform bias, and algorithmic invisibility.

 Scriba is not just about fixing payments. It’s about redesigning the architecture of digital culture to reflect a truly global community of storytellers.

 As digital anthropologist Payal Arora notes:

“The next billion users are not passive recipients—they are active remixers, innovators, and authors of the global internet.” [^5]

Platforms that ignore this reality are not just missing a market. They’re missing the future.

Scriba doesn’t exist yet. But it could.

It could be built as a tech-for-good startup, a cooperative platform, or an open-source project. It could begin with a pilot region—say South Asia or East Africa—and expand outward in pods. It could partner with mobile telcos, digital banks, even regional newsrooms.

The important thing is that it centres those who’ve long been excluded from the digital publishing boom—and creates a model where access, equity, and creativity coexist.

Scriba is more than a platform. It’s a proposition:

That publishing needn’t be trapped in colonial infrastructure.
That storytelling has no single centre.
And that the next wave of media must be written in many languages, on many devices, and paid in many ways.

To those with the will to build: the world is waiting.

Further Reading & Resources

• Substack’s Global Expansion Plan – Substack Blog

• Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics – Nanjala Nyabola

• The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West – Payal Arora

• Platform Colonialism: The Internet as Infrastructure and Culture – Data Justice Lab

• Stripe Global Coverage – Stripe

• How Flutterwave and Paystack Are Changing African Payments – Rest of World