Lovebase.com is formally alarena.com a top Nigerian dating site with over 60,000 members and growing, turned positive. We got this tip-off from the founder Simdul Shagaya in our recent interview we conducted with him.

How it works

You sign up on the site with the basic information you wish to be recognized on the site, and activate via your email.

To get people of interest, you can use its search function which allows you to specify whether you need male or female and the age grade, location and users with picture.

A New Deal?

Yea! We asked the founder of the reason for the change of name and he said; “The name change happened for several reasons. One was to have the brand appeal to a greater population of Nigerians in terms of ethnicity and age. As you know, Alarena means matchmaker in Yoruba. The brand now addresses an ethnically wider and younger crowd that may be looking for casual relationships in addition to those seeking marriage”.

The design is sleek and aesthetic, a world-class and web 2.0 compatible website. It’s really one of the top Nigerian sites with powerful user-experience.

The site also has a dedicated line 080-66-33-22-99 for customer support.

The Real Deal

The site has two options; premium and free membership. With premium membership, user get message from serious people and reduces spam. You can actually upload your picture to increase relevance. On the other hand, the free membership allows people to use the site for free!

Business Model

The site has seen considerable number of people making payment for the premium service. With this, the site has been able to sustain itself, innovate and reach broader audience. The model adopted by this site is Subscription model under Web Business Model structure.

Downside

The site can leverage the power of social media to reach far more audience as we now have more than 1.6 million Nigerians on Facebook.  Integration with Facebook will do the site good and help users find match faster and better.

Also understanding that mobile has more penetration than computer, a mobile site and SMS alert will help users get result faster and make them stick to the site, eventually increasing word-of-mouth.

Have you used this site before? How was it?

visit: Lovebase.com

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Emmanuel is the Principal Consultant at MobileMoneyAfrica and a leading mobile commerce on the Africa space. We asked couple of questions regarding the upcoming event MobiFest2010 of which we are partner; these question can shed light on some of the questions you might want to ask, go through and endeavor to ask more in the comment section below.

WTN: What is mobiFest2010 About?

Emmanuel: MobiFEST  is Nigeria’s first mobile apps, contents and devices
conference and exhibition. It will hold in the heart of the Nigerian
youth market in the Yaba axis of Lagos, targeting  students from
about five higher institutions. MobiFEST was conceived to accelerate
mobile apps development focusing on areas of strong compelling need
across all areas of human endeavors  in Nigeria.It will be hosted at
the University of Lagos.

WTN: How will it impact Nigerian mobile market?

Emmanuel: Immediately what we are looking at is a Nation wide buzz on mobile apps and how it can be leveraged to address some developmental challenges
in Nigeria.When this has been achieved,the next stage is to commence
development efforts in making this a reality.

WTN: From the developer’s perspective… what should we expect?

Emmanuel: Basically, we want the event to be a launch pad for Nigerian
developers to gain a share of the market. Nigerians are very
intelligent people. However, it is important to note that  abilities
are limited where there are no opportunities. My expectation is that
the mobile network operators and device manufacturers active in the
mobile landscape in Nigeria will consider setting up an innovation lab
in Nigeria where Young mobiprenuers can develop their ideas. Such a
lab can be housed in one of our universities to create a hub for a
thriving mobile apps developer community.

WTN: What should we expect from the business perspective too?

Emmanuel: If new innovative services are successfully launched and it becomes
commercial success, then those players will reap the benefit of such
efforts. If we have More Nigerians striving to become the likes of
Alexandre Amosu, Chika Nwobi, Goke Akinboro in their own
communities,then we are on our way to launching a Nigerian Renaissance
via the mobile technology.

WTN: Looking at the speakers they are such movers in the industry, is there going to be a kind of synergy between budding technopreneurs and the established players?

Emmanuel: The essence of bringing the established players like you rightly
noted,is to bridge the gap and learn from them.The disconnection
between these two groups is the reason for the limited growth in that
sector. We need to come together,share experiences and forge a way
forward.

WTN: In the mail we got, top mobile brands are coming to look at innovations  worth investing in, what’s your advice to our mobile developers?

Emmanuel: Apart from top Brands, some enterprenuers are actively seeking out
young developers to explore outsourcing developmental jobs from EU /
North America.While it will be great to attract these scouts,my advice
is,present or showcase what you have and where you are. Dont  hurry  to
complete your developments only to get it wrong. Be proud of your
efforts and show is as it is,even if it is still at conceptual
stage. You may not just know who will be interested at that stage.

WTN: Looking forward, what chapter will this event open, will it be an annual event?

Emmanuel: It will give us the ability to measure what is out there. Measure the efforts,understand the short falls in terms of resources and what is
needed to move forward.It is my sincere believe that this humble
efforts will open a new vista for Nigeria developers as we celebrate
the 9th year of GSM in Nigeria and hopefully, we may get our version
of mobile Monday and maybe, an innovation lab to make all these dreams
a reality. It will be an annual event and we hope to replicate it
across the geo-political zones in Nigeria.

Thank you.

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WTN: Let’s meet you

Daniel: My name is Daniel Emeka, a 22 year old graphic designer/digital artist, a proud Nigerian and the vision bearer of DANIZCONCEPT

WTN: What inspired you to go into design and when did you start?

Daniel: I got into design to evoke an emotion and also cause a reaction in the minds and hearts of people. That’s what makes it interesting, I started designing in 2007.

WTN: Your designs are message-driven, what drives you to developing concepts for your designs?

Daniel: Love for arts and the beauty of the world I would say is really what drives the message in my art. When deep messages pop in my head I jot down and meditate on the idea before I start designing 

WTN: How has the market been so far in Nigeria?

Daniel: The market is getting tougher everyday because of the emergence of new talented graphic designers. Access to the internet has really helped the growth of graphic designers that it is becoming hard to make a choice out of a lot of us.

But only a few of us have carved out niches for ourselves in-order for clients to differentiate each designer’s quality i.e: There are different kinds of graphic design skills, namely: Visual art, page layout, interface design and typography.

WTN: What are the challenges you face as a designer?

Daniel: Challenges exist everywhere and in different ways but to me, my biggest challenge as a designer is poor acceptance in the corporate world. It is really annoying that they give credits of branding, advertising ads, collateral designs to their marketing executives instead of the graphic designer. Why can’t each company have a creative director the same way they have marketing executives or something… just my opinion.

WTN: Can we really draw a line between web designer and graphic designers?

Daniel: Even if we do, the line is so thin, that it will soon be a criterion to be able to do web design as a graphic designer. The best websites in the world are done by graphic designers’; the only problem is that some of us (me inclusive) are either worked up or too lazy to study some little programming. That aside, there is really no difference.

WTN: Tell us more about Naija Design Challenge?

Daniel: Yeah, it’s a project that I and David Osaige is working on. We really want to show the world that there are talents in abundance when it comes to graphic design here in Nigeria.

We will be posting more info on our Facebook page, but for now we are still sealing our lips on some details. Not to worry, it will be BIG!

WTN: Which other project(s) are you currently working on?

Daniel: Nothing serious just improving my skills, and praying to God to be better with each passing day

WTN: What is your view of the creative design market in Nigeria?

Daniel: Number one is we are not being supported at all. Not just from only the government but the corporate firms too. The second issue is, we keep hearing complains of “we are too creative to the general public”, or our clients are too archaic. Until that is tackled, I doubt we will be able to grab international recognitions like, Cannes, Pencil, Grammys, Mobo’s, Oscar’s  etc.

WTN: In the global/world scale, where do you place Nigerian designs in terms of design professionalism?

Daniel: hmmm on the global scale we are not there yet, but we are getting there, but here in Africa, maybe the best after South Africa.

WTN: What’s your view about web/internet market in Nigeria?

Daniel: It is a very large, lucrative and effective market. There is a wide space for anybody to play with and Nigerians are taking full advantage of it. And there are still a lot of places to explore but we are definitely going in the right direction

WTN: What’s your view on digital art in Nigeria?

Daniel: Digital art here in Nigeria has not yet gained its ground mostly because most of our schools are yet to embrace it into their curricular. The few of us that practice such art are either self trained or trained outside the shores of this country.

WTN: What words do you have for upcoming designers?

Daniel: BE YOURSELF!!! Do not ever try to be like Daniel or any other designer.

After learning the basics, try and build your own style of art and improve on it.

And lastly, its all about self expression, but remember you do not owe it to yourself alone but to everybody looking at your design. Accept critiques, good or bad, but do not let them kill your zeal or put you on a comfort zone because it could kill your talent faster than you imagine.

Connect with Daniel on Facebook here.

View His design works here

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The focus of the event;

• Independent mobile application developers / vendors.
• Device manufacturers.
• Content providers.
• Integrators and Aggregators.
• SMS services providers.
• Location based services.

Speakers

• Idaresit Abasiama: FaceBook local partner -WildFusion Nig Ltd.
• Akin Naptal – MobileWorld
• Tim Akinbo – Timobjects Nigeria.
• Paulette Erijo – Letche tech Ltd
• Yomi Adegboroye – Mobility Nigeria.
• Bimbo Adewole – MobileCV Nigeria.
• Onanuga Tosin – Mobilexectera
• Goke Akinboro – Cellullant Nigeria.
• Jide Akindele – MMIT
• Dayo Adefila – Insight communications Ltd
• Femi Adeagbo – SaveMy Contacts
• Chika Nwobi – MTECH
• Samuel Legunsen – Sony digital EU.
• Kofi Oroh – Mobitronics Nigeria Ltd

Other Event line up is;

Developers Hub

Developers’ hub is an “event within an event” at Mobifest 2010 that will present a unique opportunity to tap into local resources that is available in Nigeria and connect with young innovative players that are striving to enter the mobile applications market.
The developers’ hub Showcase at Mobifest is an area on the show floor dedicated to young innovators demonstrating and displaying their innovative mobile applications.

Who should attend?

Marketing and communication agencies that needs to understand the growing importance of mobile applications to their industry.
Financial, Insurance Institutions and Micro finance Banks seeking for cost effective mobile Banking and financial solutions.
Religious,NGO and Government agencies seeking new innovative channels to engage the citizens.
Application developers interested in staying current on the latest developments from the largest platforms.
Content providers seeking new, directed networking opportunities.
Operators who want to find that next cutting edge app that will help attract and retain customers.
Device makers and platform owners trying to recruit the best app developers.

Mobifest 2010, will be the largest event focused exclusively on the mobile applications ecosystem and will attracts thousands of mobile product enthusiasts looking to discover the latest developments and hottest products for different industry segments.

If you have an innovation you are currently working on, try to package it better as Nokia and Samsung will be available on ground to demo your products for possible investment/sponsorship.

Date: 17^th – 18^th August 2010
Venue: University of Lagos Auditorium, Akoka Yaba, Lagos.

So what are you waiting for, thick your calendar and get ready for the day!

Read more here

Join the Facebook page here.

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In the early days I used 23401 which is for a town in the US, somehow the sites accepted the code and took it to be a US based user.

To easily target people with information and serve Nigerian internet users better, it is of great importance that we have these codes in accessible format… now here comes the solution!

Tim Akinbo, one of Nigeria’s brilliant programmer has solved the problem and make the data available online.

It’s currently hosted on Google Fusion Lab, you can test it out here.

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Ahmad Mukoshy is a young Nigerian doing great thing up there in the north, very passionate and consistent. He has been in the industry since 2007 and since then have serviced hundreds of client around the country and beyond. Read trough his story has a shared with us, the journey so far!

I am 20yr old born and brought-up in Sokoto (Nothern Nigeria) and I am the CEO of Aimtech Ltd a pioneer web hosting company and also Founder and Developer of Yarnable and Yrn.me a micro-discussion site and a free URL shorter respectively.

I started my first venture (Aimtech NG) in 2007 when I just graduated from Secondary School (High School).  As of that time, I was only 17yrs old and I was a bit versatile with web design and development. Web design has been my hubby since SS1 (Senior High).

I had zero support except for my enthusiasm! My father was “Not Ok” with me sitting on a computer all day long because to him, I was wasting my time when I could be studying Mathematics (his favourite). It was really challenging! But thank God to that, I am not in my Final year soon to be a University Graduate!

Financially, I had to struggle to establish and sustain my ventures. I remember I actually sold my mobile phone back in 2007 to raise capital for my hosting company, that was about 11,000 Naira ($70) or there about as of then.

I was selling Domain Names to my friends and internet contacts who were asking me of how I registered my own back then to make money. So I figured I could turn it into a business and I ventured into web hosting service with just 1 customer. Today, my hosting company empowers over 450 web site owners.

Looking at the challenges in running business in the country, I believe in the saying, it does not matter in which situation you find yourself; but how you react to the situation. Nigeria has been a challenging place for online-business in particular, but the answer for me has always been…. I cannot change the fact that I am here,  all I can do is look around for possible opportunities.

The key that have helped me so far, I will simply say; Persistance, Persistence, Persistence!

I have been tempted to quit times without number, but what kept me going is persistence. This has been my hobby, it is what I like to do no matter how tough it gets, I only stick more to it and learn from the challenges. It takes courage to drive success, that was my main ingredient.

That is why, I always advice upcoming entrepreneurs to venture into what they like the most!

Is it really possible to succeed in this country as a start-up?
Sure, absolutely sure!

I have seen countless success in Nigeria and if they can make it, why not you? I succeed, some one did before me and surely more will do it after me, it all depends on your courage and devotion. Nigeria and Africa in a whole is still a virgin region when it comes to businesses and start-ups. So much is yet uncovered and success awaits you!

The future of technology business in the country is promising with the evolving growth rate of computer literacy in Nigeria; I will say the future is so blossom.

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Simdul Shagaya Speaking at Barcamp Nigeria 2010

Simdul Shagaya currently the MD, E-motion advertising based in Abuja, Nigeria and also runs various tech companies. He is a veteran web business man in Nigeria, he gained experience working with an IT company that served Fortune 500 companies, and he also worked with companies like Google, Real Network and Rand Merchant bank, South Africa. If you were at the last Barcamp Nigeria, you would have experienced, first hand his dept of knowledge about technology. He shares his experience and perspective with us about the Internet Market in Nigeria and how technopreneurs can get it right in the Country. He knows what he’s talking about, he’s been there, he has built stuff, and he has encountered both success and failure. Enjoy as you read through his mind-blowing revelations.

WTN: Can you give a brief overview of the Nigerian internet market in your of perspective?

Sim: The past few years have been marked by the growth of mobile telephony. We are now entering a period of explosion in mobile data (or more specifically, mobile broadband) services. In aggregate, the economic value of this new chapter will be even greater than the mobile telephony revolution but the mobile and internet service will have a lower share of the total revenues. Innovative application providers will make staggering amounts of wealth and create unprecedented amounts of value and may represent as much as 10% on entire industry revenues by 2015.

WTN: Can you brief us about your journey so far in the industry, how has it been?

Sim: In industry terms, I suppose I’m a bit of a veteran. My first job in information technology, in 1999, was with a company called MicroStrategy that mined massive amounts of data for Fortune 500 companies. I later spent some time with Real Networks (who basically invented streaming audio and video) and Google Inc. This was punctuated by some time with Rand Merchant Bank putting money in mobile operators and other infrastructure in Africa. I quickly learnt that banking was not for me. My first internet startup was in 2005 –  inollywood.com which sought to distribute Nigerian movies over the internet. It failed for a number of reasons – probably most notably because of my inability to, at the time, accurately read the local context in terms of broadband availability, licensing and securing movies rights, billing, etc. We got as far as licensing a valuable catalogue of content from NTA including New Masquerade, Village Headmaster, Samanja and other Nigerian classic. This classic content, interestingly, did quite well but, at the end, the timing was not right. I certainly hope my sense of timing has improved since then.

WTN: The rate of clone startups (without unique local concept) we churn out in the country, what’s your view about it?

Sim: Cloning is a bonafide form of innovation. There is nothing really wrong with it in principle but local developers must be careful in certain respects. For example, some sites that are cloned are intrinsically global and to create them for a purely Nigerian or African market may not be viable. On the other hand, cloning without taking into account local nuances is just as likely to fail.

WTN: As an experienced person in this industry, what do you think is our major challenge in the country?

Sim: For entrepreneurs, the challenges are several folds. On an industry wide basis, one of the most daunting challenges is a dearth in technical skill. Also, our culture does not encourage risk taking. This is probably a consequence of a nation where most look to government in a paternalistic manner and youth has historically not been given adequate regard. On a micro level, challenges of monetization still exist on both the fronts of advertising and online commerce. Ad agencies and big brands have been slow to recognize the internet as an effective channel for advertising and this has stymied the flow of revenue to application developers. On the commerce side, paypal and other forms of online payments are simply not available in Nigeria. This may soon change however with the advent of mobile payments and micropayment schemes like Facebook Credits. In combination, these will allow for capital to flow into the industry in the form of revenues.

WTN: How do you think startups can package their ideas to attract funding?

Sim: Not to sound fatalistic but the availability of structured funding channels for web startups in Nigeria is basically zero right now. Look for angel investors – friends and family. These are people that obviously must believe in you. Start lean and watch your expenses carefully. Prioritize your features and roll them out as you get more funds in the form of either revenues or investor capital.

WTN: Global competitiveness can Nigerian startups reach that level?

Sim: Most certainly, but it will take a lot of hard work, creativity, time and capital. We have a potentially massive market and one that will be, by definition, mobile. This creates huge opportunities that cannot be ignored.

WTN: Gist us about your tech companies; lovebase.com and gbogbo.com how are they doing in the market?

Sim: Lovebase is doing well. We can confidently say that it is the leading dating social network in West Africa. All revenues are derived from subscriptions as we made a choice not serve advertising on the site. It is profitable but not cash flow positive. This means that all profits are reinvested into the business and probably will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Gbogbo is a labor of love but has gained quite a reputation for being an effective way for Nigerians to buy and sell things and find local services.

WTN: Talking about lovebase.com; formally alarena.com, why the name change?

Sim: The name change happened for several reasons. One was to have the brand appeal to a greater population of Nigerians in terms of ethnicity and age. As you know, Alarena means matchmaker in Yoruba. The brand now addresses an ethnically wider and younger crowd that may be looking for casual relationships in addition to those seeking marriage.

WTN: Still on lovebase.com, I discovered it’s got premium user package, what is the acceptance in the market and particularly the percentage of paid to free members?

Sim: Premium membership is a bit of a necessary evil. It is a way of establishing seriousness of romantic intent – meaning to communicate, you must first pay. If we don’t do this, then our members will be sent massive amounts of messages from unserious people.
Frankly we have been working to find other ways to make the site even more open while improving revenues. This sounds like a contradiction but it isn’t. We believe we may have found a way for people to communicate for “free” while still establishing seriousness of romantic intent. As mentioned previously, we have a healthy conversion rate and people actually go to GT Bank and make deposits to avail themselves of our premium services. We expect that revenues will jump substantially with the advent of mobile payments.

WTN: I must tell you this sir, we are following your footsteps, what new stuff should we expect from you soonest?

Sim: As you know, I co-founded an outdoor advertising business – E-Motion Advertising  - that is doing quite well. E-Motion will be doing some pretty exciting things in the internet space over the next few months that I am not at liberty to speak of now but represents my most challenging (and gratifying) project so far.

WTN: Talking about the future of internet business in Nigeria, where do you see the industry in the next 3-5years?

Sim: Nigeria has a huge population and that will drive demand for online services that will then push out into larger Africa. This means Nigeria will probably be the nexus for many African services along with cities like Cape Town. Funding for developers will start to emerge in terms of capital investments (from large media companies like the mobile operators and other traditional media companies (like Naspers in South Africa which is making bold internet-related investments in emerging markets)). The internet will be almost purely mobile in nature in Nigeria. The next wave of innovation will be disruptive in its fullest sense. Incumbents like Microsoft and possibly Nokia will stall and possibly decline. New entrants like Facebook, HTC, Google/Android will take their place. Mobile internet will become an indispensible part of our lives. We will not understand how we lived without it. Huge fortunes will be made (and lost) during this disruption and Nigeria is not exception. Industries such as print news, financial services and Radio/TV will be massively disrupted.

WTN: In conclusion, what do you have for budding technopreneurs in the country?

Sim: Work hard, retain a childlike curiosity of the world for as long as you possibly can, and look to solve real problems of which there are many.

WTN: Thank you very much for taking time to talk to us.

Sim: You are Welcome.

Sites: emotionadvert.com, lovebase.com and gbogbo.com

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While Mr. President on the other hand, as been growing at an extremely high rate less than a month the Fan page was created. On the launch date, he had at 3,000 fans and that number has grown to a whopping 117,243 Fans. Just last week, it hit 100,000 and barely a week after it has added over 17,000 fans.

Mr. President remains the hottest celebrity online, as his facebook sensation continues.

One of the funny things on this is that, the top artiste(9ice & Dbanj specifically) with most fans on Facebook are not very active on twitter.

Other Artiste

9ice 119,789
Goodluck Jonathan 117,321
D’banj 66,260
Banky W. 42,648
Asa 25,019

Expect more stats in our half-year of the Nigerian Internet market. If you know more Fan pages, please drop below.

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