What is social media?

This week we shall release couple of updates to help strengthen our vision to shape your understanding of the web and it’s benefit to your business and personal life.

Today we will be looking at social media; someone may want to ask “what is social media?” What is the noise about? Well before we go further let’s understand the brief definition of the term Social media “…it’s media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” Simple enough? That is to say, it helps you to transform your monologue to dialogue, it makes the communication two-ways, and it changes communication from talk-to to talking-with. You are not only able to read what others have published but you can join the conversation, you can create you own!

The underlying technology behind social media is web 2.0 which is driven by democratization of content, sharing and community. Some of the most popular social media tools include: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Blogger and Wordpress.

Social Media enables viral communication and spreading of ideas. It is not limited to business; it takes different shape and forms based on the idea. One of the biggest achievements of social media is helping Barack Obama win the US presidential election. When information hit the media, and spread by someone within his network and others spread within their own networks, then the growth continue like wild fire.

There are some sharp contrasts between Social media and the Industry media as analyzed on Wikipedia, they include;

1. Reach – both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.
2. Accessibility – the means of production for industrial media are typically owned privately or by government; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.
3. Usability – industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media do not, or in some cases reinvent skills, so anyone can operate the means of production.
4. Recency – the time lag between communications produced by industrial media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response). As industrial media are currently adopting social media tools, this feature may well not be distinctive anymore in some time.
5. Permanence – industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a magazine article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing.

Social media has various branches;

• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5)
• Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, naijapulse, kukurooku, gistcaster)
• Bookmaking (delicious, StumbleUpon)
• Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad)
• Video (YouTube, Vimeo)
• Wiki (Wikipedia, PBworks)
• Etc.

Social media has transformed the media industry and shaking it right now! The power has shifted to the consumer; they can voice their opinions, engage each other and become publisher cheaply. In the business side, it has helped brands to keep their customers engaged and increase brand loyalty. For social causes, it helped in recent Haiti Earthquakes to raise millions of dollars for the victims, helped the protest in Iranian election. The LightupNigeria protest started on Twitter and the recent youth protest in Nigeria tagged Where is Yaradua also started on social media platform.

Social media is here to stay is we shall see it enhance in the coming years, because we humans are social being, and the thing we have been expecting from the internet is the social part, now we have and we are enjoying it!

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Weekly recap, first week of March

Nigerian Pidgin Bible; Crowd-sourced Project on Facebook

Pidgin english is a simplified English language people in Nigeria use for casual conversation.
A project developed by 9ja BusStop; the Facebook application hopes to translate the Christian Bible to pidgin English.

Most visited Nigerian sites in February 2010

As usual looking at how Nigerian website feared in the recent month. It again no surprise that nairaland.com remains on the top spot but its good to note how punchng.com rally from shadow of its formal glory to take back the second spot.

NetNaira.com another Nigerian e-payment site

If you have been following this blog since the start of the year, you will notice a growing pattern in the Nigerian web space. I wrote last time about an e-payment service for Nigerian (FasteCash).

Interswitch webpay, a dying goldmine

Interswitch the leading payment gateway in Nigeria, in fact has a near monopoly stronghold on the e-payment industry in Nigeria.

Startups Act 2010, US wants technopreneur around the world

I was reading through Techcrunch and came across this post. Silicon Valley technocrats are drumming up support for the bill proposed by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) to be discussed next week Thursday.

Innovation Hub lands in Kenya

If there is a country on African soil that has shown consistent commitment towards technology development in recent time, I sure will choose Kenya! Kenya is home to M-Pesa and some other innovative technologies.

Facebook worth $11.5billion, Twitter $1.4billion, Linkedin $1.3billion

Whether you want to say, social networking is fun or business, I guess a company worth over a billion dollars is no more a child’s place.
Facebook is the world largest social networking site with over 400 million users worldwide. Oh! 400 M, yeah! 400million eyeballs you can market to!

Nigerian Blogger Featured on Oprah Show

Nigeria internet scene has been growing massively on the positive side, Google recently stamped its footprint on the Nigerian Internet Market last month; as other large scale investment is going on to harness the potential of the Nigerian internet market.

BBN SMS launched bulk SMS recharge cards

BBN SMS is one of the leading bulk SMS operators in the Nigeria’s growing bulk SMS market. To serve more customers, BBN believes that bulk SMS does not have to run into thousands but some Naira. Today the dealer recharge PIN has been launched!

Zain Nigeria not for sale to Bharti

Mobile provider ECONET is making attempts to block any possible sale of Zain Nigeria to Bharti Airtel of India. According to Bloomberg, CEO of Econet, Strive Masiyiwa says his company has the first option to buy the stake acquired by Zain.

Egypt’s Orascom, eighth largest mobile network in the world

The past decade has been a highly successful one for the leading Middle Eastern and African operators. PRTM, a global management consultancy, has a new report in which it says that Egypt’s Orascom Telecom has become the eighth largest mobile network in the world by customer numbers. As a result, the company is now ahead of some of the well-established international operators.

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BBN SMS launched bulk SMS recharge cards

BBN SMS is one of the leading bulk SMS operators in the Nigeria’s growing bulk SMS market. To serve more customers, BBN believes that bulk SMS does not have to run into thousands but some Naira. Today the dealer recharge PIN has been launched!.

Godwin Noah, MD/CEO said we are reaching out to more customers, creating more revenue streams for our dealers.

Card Denomination

The table shows, how you can get 50 SMS for just 200 Naira. Dealers can start with just 2,000 Naira and generate cards online!

Details available on their website here.

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Nigerian Blogger Featured on Oprah Show

Nigeria internet scene has been growing massively on the positive side, Google recently stamped its footprint on the Nigerian Internet Market last month, as other large scale investment is going on to harness the potential of the Nigerian internet market.

Uche Eze, is the blogger behind the popular entertainment blog, bellanaija.com. She is very passionate and consistent about what she does! She was also a finalist at the recent Future Awards for best use of technology category. Uche shared on the blog that she’d dreamed of appearing on Oprah show, well if they say dream comes through, this is a testimony! She dreamt it and it came to pass just under 3 months. Uche was selected amongst thousands around the world in current Oprah series “Beauty Around the World”. The show covers themes of body image and many other things.

This is a big boost to Nigeria’s growing image of positive web impact. Congratulations UChe Eze, you are an inspiration!

Spread the word!

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Innovation Hub lands in Kenya

If there is a country on African soil that has shown consistent commitment towards technology development in recent time, I sure will choose Kenya! Kenya is home to M-Pesa and some other innovative technologies.

Innovation hub or simply iHub is an open environment for techies to express themselves, launch startups and take on the world! The place was launched yesterday in fanfare!

iHub: “It’s an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator.”

Facilities

• 10MBs internet connection (hardwire and WIFI)
• Free Membership Access
• Space of startups to meet with VCs, Investors and local business
• and many more

For innovation to thrive , an accommodating environment is very important! This is a step in the right direction and it will reduce the startup headache of running an office before generation fund.

Advisory board

• Riyaz Bachani, CTO of Wananchi
• Josiah Mugambi, Co-Founder of Skunkworks
• Rebeccah Wanjiku, Tech reporter and entrepreneur
• Conrad Akunga, Blogger and Software Manager
• Erik Hersman, Tech blogger, Founder of AfriGadget and co-Founder of Ushahidi

Big ups to Kenya for this great foresight!

I hope to see this happen in Nigeria soonest! We have the market, we have the techies… can we make it happen?

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Startups Act 2010, US wants technopreneur around the world

I was reading through Techcrunch and came across this post. Silicon Valley technocrats are drumming up support for the bill proposed by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) to be discussed next week Thursday.

Here is what the bill plans to accomplish:

The Startup Visa Act of 2010 would create a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident.

That means that entrepreneur from anywhere around the globe who could raise $150,000 and a $100,000 from a US investor is qualify for the Visa.

Immigrant Visa in the US has been a big issue ever since and this will not be any different as response on Techcrunch blog shows. Though some supports and others don’t. Argument ranges from abuse by other corporation to pushing jobs for foreigners at the expenses of already jobless Americans.

What does this mean for Africa?

As someone commented, a group of 15 people can invest like $10,000 each for a colleague to spearhead the startup plus get funding from US and set up the company then invite others. While this seem cumbersome, it’s the least possible option (i think).

A price tag of $150,000 is such a huge amount that is good enough to start a company here in Nigeria and become a multi-million naira company. Anyone who could raise this and still want to go out there; its either  the company will require large sum of money or just want to check out.

A brain-drain of technology talent 2.0

Africa sure experience massive emmigration of its talented population to the West in the ’80s till now, this will surely aggravate the trend.

Overlooking of emerging market

Well, if you are a US citizen and doing well, it is sure a good thing to see innovation continue from the valley and US still leading the pack, well this will help the US as companies registered their pay taxes and helps the government meet the demand of its population. On the other side, the US companies can also acquire startups outside of the US and operate them  as some promising startup may not be able to raise that much or be willing go to the US.

Africa will be the last on the list of expected applicants for this visa, Indians, Chinese and other easterns countries with great talents are the main target. Given contibution of people from these countries to Silicon Valley, VCs still believes that more are still available in these countries.

African market is emerging, our web life-style is just getting shape, the world might not notice for now, I believe in the next couple of years, ideas hanging between our hears will be implemented.

How do you think this impact Africa? If you can raise $150,000 can you apply for this visa if it’s eventually passed?

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NetNaira.com another Nigerian e-payment site

If you have been following this blog since the start of the year, you will notice a growing pattern in the Nigerian web space. I wrote last time about an e-payment service for Nigerian (FasteCash). I went o Interswitch on yesterday (Tuesday) to ask for any update regarding their payment platform, well nothing has changed in the setup fee and transaction commission and no plan (as much as I know) to review the price.

In their own word: “NetNaira is a secure pointing/credit system designed to solve the problem of exchanging goods and services for value online speedily and securely.”

NetNaira aims to help small businesses with facility to accept payments directly on their websites without having to share their bank information with their customers.

A New Deal?

Not really a new deal but very strategic deal to the growth of the industry. A number of websites have been online for quite sometimes now providing the same service. Looking at Nigerian web industry, this service is yet to be fully embraced and any site that starts early and can build its trust capital should be profitable when people’s apathy to online payment is relieved.

Real Deal

• NetNaira Allows easy, secure payment platform for those who are not willing to disclose their card detail to just any website, like in the case of a recent fraudulent site we wrote about.
• The platform is secured with Comodo.
• Helps merchant accept payment on their website.
• It also has a simple website integration API that allows communication with its server.
• Referral commission on new customer introduced to the platform
• Transfer fee is 1.2% + 10 naira
• Account is free to open and to receive payment
• An escrow service that allow anyone to become a cashpoint for the platform
• It’s seller are numerous (where you can withdraw your money)

Downside

• Just about 7 merchants are available on its directory
• Maximum transaction cap on personal account

Business model

Transaction broker; it helps people fulfill deals across the internet and making money from commission.

At this point in time, services like these are extremely needed to help facilitate buying and selling on the internet in Nigeria. Given the peculiarity of Nigeria Trust wise, having your money channeled through third party could be a safe way to buy stuff online

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Most visited Nigerian sites in February 2010

As usual looking at how Nigerian website feared in the recent month. It again no surprise that nairaland.com remains on the top spot but its good to note how punchng.com rally from shadow of its formal glory to take back the second spot. We predicted last month that punchng.com will battle it out between 1^st and 2^nd spot this month; yeah indeed it proved us right. While vanguardngr.com relinquished the second spot for the veteran punchng.com. thisdayonline.com is back again with a massive push  upward to stand on the fourth spot while 234next.com also ramp up 3 places to stay on the 5^th spot.

Sunnewsonline.com dropped just 1 place as gtbank.com leads the banking industry on the 7^th spot. Ngrguardiannews.com gained just a spot while nigeriagalleria.com shed the most places in the top-ten losing 6^th points. Nigerianbestforum.com remains on the 10^th spot as it as last month.

You can view the full table here for the current and historical ranking. This review covered the top fifty.

Top Ten

1. nairaland.com
2. punchng.com
3. vanguardngr.com
4. thisdayonline.com
5. 234next.com
6. sunnewsonline.com
7. gtbank.com
8. ngrguardiannews.com
9. nigeriagalleria.com
10. nigerianbestforum.com

The Mover

Let’s look at the top movers for February;

• Technologytimesng.com 32
• Ican-ngr.com 26
• Sompassnews.net 22
• Independentngonline.com 20
• Smsbag.com 19
• Nigeriamasterweb.com 18

The Shakers

These sites could not keep-up with the heat, so they shed points;

• Jambutme.com 14
• Buyright.biz 9
• Jobberman.com 8
• bbnplace.com 7
• naijahotjobs.com, nigeriagalleria.com  6

The most significant shaker for month is nairalist.com

Debutants

It’s lovely to see that Nigerian web industry is active and adding many more sites daily. A total of 3 sites debuted on our ranking list. etisalat.com.ng topped the list having been able to break into the top-forty.

• Etisalat.com.ng
• Nigerianelitesforum.com
• Multilinks.com

Drop outs

These sites eventually dropped out of our top-fifty Nigerian sites;

• platgroupng.com
• arikair.com
• Bellanaija.com
• 50kobo.com
• flyaero.com
• nigerianscomplain.com
• nairalist.com

The Nigerian web industry is waking up as more startups are being launched from Nigerians at home and in Diaspora. News sites still dominate the top-ten site as more local contents are still needed to water the appetite of Nigerian internet users. I hope the events lined up for this year will help address these needs.

Note: Our ranking is based on Alexa Internet ranking system. We select Nigerian sites from the bunch to arrive at our ranking. This review is based on the top fifty Nigerian sites that we ranked.

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Nigerian Pidgin Bible; Crowd-sourced Project on Facebook

Pidgin english is a simplified English language people in Nigeria use for casual conversation.

A project developed by 9ja BusStop; the Facebook application hopes to translate the Christian Bible to pidgin english.

As Nigerian developers evolve; this is a welcome development as I still await more business viable applications and web services.

The Application is available here

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Technology Outlook 2010 starts today

I wrote last week about the event agenda for this year’s technology outlook. The event proper will be starting anytime from now. I will try as much as possible to live blog and tweet as the event proceeds.

Today’s topic will focus on;

TELEPHONY FORUM

Keynote: Ikra Bilbis, Minister of State, Information & Communications

Ernest Ndukwe, NCC

Wale Goodluck, MTN Nigeria

Steve Evans, Etisalat Nigeria;

Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, eShekels

Sylvester Anyanwun, Senate

Funke Opeke, Main One

Jameel Mohammed, Globacom

Afam Edozie, FiCres Capital

Jeffrey Hedberg, MultiLinks Telkom

Philip de la Vega, Nokia Nigeria

ICT in GOVERNANCE FORUM

Keynote: Gerald Ilukwe, GalaxyBackbone

Ahmed Rufai, NigComSat

Cleopas Angaye, NITDA

Case Study Presentations by:

Lagos State

Delta State

Kano State

E-BUSINESS FORUM

Keynote: Tani Fafunwa, Resourcery Limited

Collins Onuegbu, Signal Alliance

Austin Okere, CWG

Dele Arikawe, Chevron

To follow on Twitter please use this hashtag #techoutlook

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