G-Nigeria Day 2010, What has it changed?

We covered the event live on our website and twitter through out the three days. I wrote a follow up article on the impact of Google on Nigeria and African Internet market.

The Organization of the event was above average, except for the first day when all startup glitches showed up. The second day was the best in my own opinion given the interaction level and the VCs invited.

Yea, the G-team! Excellence! They are the best! I am still learning on how to build a company that will have that highly dedicated staffs. They were ready to listen and very smart!

The audience, I think we need to step up our quest for knowledge and to know that though we are late in the technology market, but we can grow faster by leveraging the technology of the advanced countries (Google, Microsoft, Facebook and the likes). Majority of the questions asked could be gotten from Google search! Also on the code side, the code repository has all the information you will ever need for their APIs. A note my people, when there is an event, I think we could explore the products online before coming to learn from the expert, learning before the actual teaching I think will stimulate “Action Learning”.

The online audience following the event were also awesome as they kept asking what is happening if there is a long silence! I believe they enjoyed the flow of the event to have wanted more! The event was covered both on twitter and Google buzz, which was a great product for events back channels, very engaging!

All said and done, I think the way forward is to continue to engage the African community, keep casting the vision on them, support and training the techies. There are Google User Groups one for Lagos and Abuja. These are great was to make sharing easier.

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This week on the Web, weekly recap

Interview with Chiemeka Ozumba, CEO of ishopinlondon.com

As Nigeria ecommerce market continues its aggressive growth, ishopinlondon.com joins the league of site launch this year.

Mpesa comes to South Africa

In a move that could pitch Vodacom competitively against local banks for the first time, its parent Vodafone has announced that it will launch M-Pesa, Kenya’s wildly popular mobile money transfer service, in SA.

Africa Meet AppStore

Apple in a bid to consolidate usage of its products in Africa, Apple on the 18^th of February launched the AppStore for Africa. This will make buy app for Apple platform for African countries easier. Countries listed are: Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia, and Uganda. The question you may want to ask is where is Nigeria on the list?

Facebook Drives 44 Percent Of Social Sharing On The Web

If you are still wondering why Google is pushing so hard with its new product Buzz, it is because it wants in on social traffic. For many sites on the Web, social traffic coming through Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace is beginning to rival, and in some cases overtake, search traffic as the single biggest source of traffic. This traffic comes from shared links, photos, and videos. By its own numbers, 5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every week.

Microsoft Fights Google With Google-Hosted Videos

Yesterday, we saw Microsoft shamelessly go after the iPhone with a video which played at Mobile World Congress for its new Windows Phone 7 Series. But it’s not just Apple that Microsoft is taking on with videos, it’s competitors like Google and OpenOffice.org as well.

How we built secret London in a weekend

This is a guest post by Tiffany Philippou who started the Secret London Facebook Group. Two weeks after launch the group had amassed over 180,000 members, propelling its 21 year old creator into her first startup – see our previous coverage.

Google Launched New Maps domains in 30 African Countries

As Google increase its penetration in Africa, it has improved effort to put Africa on Google Map. Haven launched the products in Kenya and South Africa, this latest effort is a big step forward in reaching the Africa audience.

G-Nigeria kick starts with day one

Google starts the much anticipated event, G-Nigeria in university of Lagos on Thursday 17^th of February. The event saw a large turn-out and the auditorium was filled up. Google introduced its technology to the African developer and how to market better use of them. Google believe, than local developers are needed for the next phase of advancement on internet.

G-Nigeria Day two

The second day accommodated technopreneur, web markets and business people with interest in Google. This day was the best day I must say, well organized and coordinated. Google top products, Adwords and Adsense were explored and questions answered from the audience. The entrepreneur and VCs, session was mind blowing as young people asked the VC how to raise fund, develop business mentoring.

G-Nigeria Day three

On Friday was the focus on Computer Science students, a repeat of day one but focus was made on the students. Google believe the university community and students are the next point to expect great idea, hence the need to help them get started faster. Students asked question from the G-team and was delighted to learn from Google.

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Impact of Google Presence in Nigeria Internet Market

I was at the Google event for 3 straight days and covered the event; it was very interesting as hundreds of developers and internet business people in came around. Read more on Day One, Day Two and Day Three.

The Nigerian internet market is growing progressively; in recent stats, Nigerian internet users are over 11 million second only to Egypt in Africa. Social media adoption is also on the rise as more than a million Nigerians now use Facebook. Before this, Nigeria is widely known for scam in Nigeria, but now things have changed! With the rate of internet adoption and technology development, in the next couple of years, the perception would have changed.

Google, the brand!

Google is hugely a successful company with more than $171.95B market capitalization. World biggest internet service firm company and biggest advertising company in the world. If there is one thing Google is known for, that is search! Google’s goal is to organize world’s information and make them accessible from any device connected to the internet.  With its success in search, it has leveraged it to launch other successful products!

Google has to a large extent done well and has earned brand loyalty and trust! It has so far acquired 61 companies since 2001 and has projected to acquire at least 1 company per month. The acquisition is largely influenced by available cash-at-hand of over $23billion and strategic plans of Google to organize world information.

Google launched its first phone (Nexus One) this January and will be launching Chrome laptop this year. This has set it against Apple and indeed, (as I think) is a very strategic step by Google; because 1. the future is mobile 2. Platform is key (hence android) 3. Data is awesome 4. Mobile ad will be the future of Adsense (Google Acquisition of AdMob) the cash machine for the company. Innovation in the mobile hardware industry is not fast enough, and Google known for software prowess.

Google Around the World

Google has a mantra, which is “Don’t be evil” this has been their guideline around the globe. Google’s presence is felt everywhere in the world. With offices in 35 countries and serves the whole world except countries with censorship and restrictions.

Google in Africa

Google have offices in Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and now Nigeria. Google is increasing its presence in Africa and hope to accelerate development in the continent.

Google’s mission for Africa is to make the Internet an integral part of everyday life.

Make the Internet relevant and useful to Africans through;

• Content
• Education
• Relevance

Eliminate access as a barrier to all potential users
* Internet affordability
* Devices – affordable devices
* Latency – drastically improve latency

These were highlighted in the on-going G-Nigeria Day holding in University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Google in Nigeria and the future

Some of the understanding of Google about Africa and Nigeria is that;

• More than 50% of 16yr olds who are familiar with the Internet don’t use it due to “lack of access to a PC” (SSA ICT Survey)
• Africa: 14% of the world’s population but 2% of Internet users.
• Nigeria has one of the highest mobile adoption rates.
• Local content for African countries is scarce.

Google is willing to enable local developers to collaborate on content generation, API integration and other Google products so as to accelerate the growth. It is wonderful to note that, Google has youth-like corporation and supports open source projects and other technology development around the world.

Impact on Local Developer and Internet Market in Nigeria

Well, in as much as we understand that Google is not an NGO, so for every investment made, there should be corresponding return on investment (which is great for every business), so Google’s entrance into the Nigerian internet market will get the attention of other internet giant who are still skeptical about the Nigeria. I see it stimulating the growth as it has in other countries.

Google projected to acquire a company per month, yeah! So for developers who thinks that funding is a problem, get started with something now, bootstrap it with a little fund you can, if you get Google’s attention you can become a good candidate for acquisition. Imaging joining the Google EconomyL!

For other Nigerian internet companies who are yet to get creative in there web business, I think the faster you do that the better, 1. You could be acquired or compete with Google 2. You will become a late comer to the party. Google brand capital is enormous and anything it touches turns to gold, so how will Google turn Nigerian internet market to gold now?

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G-Nigeria Event, Day 2 Live updates recap

We followed the event live here from our twitter page and on this site, you view day 2 live feed here.

Day 2 started off with introduction on setting up online business.

Session 2 Adwords and Adsense

Second session focused on Adwords and Adsense; the two Google advertising product helps you to reach your target audience and also make money from serving ads on your website. Some of the highlights are ;

-          Adsense are structure based on Content, ads group and keywords

-          ad text helps you concisely tell about your product in your ad. So a call to action is always good to drive action.

-          types of keyword match exact match, phrase match, broad match & negative match

-          search marketing is one of the best ways to meet your target audience

-          mobile internet access is growing massively

-          useful links to backup this presentation; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_Score http://faizbash.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/targeting-the-nigerian-audience-google-vs-facebook-ads/

-          banner ads and text are base on pay per click or impression

Question and answer session

Q: how to make money from adwords & adsense?

A: Google says it’s all about relevance!

Session 3 Google Analytics and Site optimizer

-          Google analytics helps you know where your customers are coming from, what they do on ur site etc.

-          Google trends helps you know search volume of keywords

-           site optimizer helps you check performance of your site to enhance customers conversion

-          Goals in Google Analytics helps you target your web goals, to enable you measure performance

-          what are your website goals, to generate leads? Sell product or allow people to sign up?

-          Funnels consist of number of pages to be click before you get to the goal! eg. from product display page thru payment confirmation page

-          You can know where people are dropping off from your site while attempting to buy stuff through funnel

-          using funnels in analytics, u can manage your campaign effectively by seeing your response rate

-          Where is your landing page? where people get to when they come to your site through a particular link, it could be an ad

Questions and Answers

Q: how does Google track user by location, IP or what? how relevant considering Nigeria’s ISP with foreign IP?

A: inconsistency in ISP people use is one of the major problems in targeting people location through IP, people changes their providers quite often in Nigeria. Google plans to work with ISPs to solve this.

Q: What’s Google doing about open source?

A: open source is about tools and software not data! Google gives u tools and helps you in data analysis… not giving u access to users data

Q: How does Google give authorize consultant for Analytics, any establishment in Nigeria?

A: A website that gives u instruction on that… there is Google Nigeria now that can help with certification and training. More information shall be posted on our site.

Q: site integration of analysis access of Google analytics on clients site.

A: answer shall be added to the slide.

Q: Any plan for local filtering of user location by city, town etc

A: Google understand that it’s difficult in Nigeria, but needs developers help to get local content and relevance. This will help solve d granularity of local content!

Q: we need download version of Google codes guideline to help read offline.

A: This is available in slides and video in conversion university here http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/?hl=en.

Q: how to add Google analytics to dynamic sites built on PHP, .Net etc

A: tools are available on conversion university here http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/?hl=en

Session 4: Search 101

-          Google crawls your pages for relevance

-          Google reads through your meta tags for page information

-          To make Google crawler index your site properly; improve your website, refine your website

-          robot.txt specifies pages you don’t want Google to index

-          what can you do for your site to make it more searchable?

-          build your index properly, go to web master central on Google, it  helps you with tools u can use

-          Create a sitemap! sitemap.com or .org is great tool. sitemap helps you instruct  Google about your site structure.

Questions  and Answers

Q: How does Google access information on invisible web as against other search engine?

A: Google is working with partners to improve on this, Sitemap and proper indexing are best ways to direct Google to your content.

Q: How can my site be at top of search results?

A: Site’s relevance is the most important factor in this aspect. Google tries to analyze your site to search text!

Q: How do we restrict download of paid content from Google?

A: Google follows instructions in your robot.txt to crawl your site.

Q: How can I have search results on my website?

A: Google has features and API can make that possible.

Q: What is Google’s plan to make flash based website possible?

A: Google is working extremely hard on it, but the solution is not perfect yet. One of the best way to get your site index is to develop a text based version so that Google can index it properly.

Session 5 Knol, Blogger and Youtube

-           Google knows that not everyone can build CMS sites, hence blogger

-          Google thinks 2% of Africa related content online is unaccepted, so it wants to help!

-          Google’s target is on hyperlocal content, to generate information that are relevant to every are.

-          now a live demo on how to create a blogger account and youtube

Session 6

VCs and Entrepreneurs Session

Recipe for success…

Do you have an idea or opportunity? everyone have ideas but do you know if people wants you proposed service?

Do you have what it takes to develop ur biz idea? do you understand ur market? These are what helps you to maximize your opportunity.

Entrepreneur defined

if you are an entrepreneur, how much risk can you take?

Trust and understanding is key to working together with VC

It’s not about ideas, but how to bring it to market place and make it successful!

Investors want to see implementation of your idea, how will they make d money back from d business

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Countdown G-Nigeria Day Google event

As Google takes on Nigeria this week, it interesting that they have put together couple of Venture Capitalist to help entrepreneurs leapfrog funding for their businesses. Quite alright, the event will be more to promote Google’s product and technology but it will also create platform for Nigerian developers to know how Google technology works and put it to better use.

Day 1 Teaches about Google technology (Register for this day)
Day 2 Teaches about how to use Google to promote your business (for marketers) and a VC session to help in fundraising for your startups (Register for this day)
Day 3 Another day to teach about Google’s technology but specifically tailored for computer science students. (Register for this day)

The VCs are well experienced and most are Nigerians; well as some people are seeking for funding outside the country, this is also a platform to get it right here at home.

The VCs are:
Folabi Esan, Adlevo Capital
Tokunboh Ishmael, Alitheia Capital
Anthony Oboh, Unique Venture Capital

Read their bios here.

The event holds between 18-20th of February at University of Lagos.

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Google Vs China

You might have read on various pages online about the battle currently going on between Google and China.

Google released a statement last week Tuesday about a possible pullout from Chinese market following attack on its infrastructure and intellectual properties. The attack was carried out last month on more than 20 top firms in the world (Microsoft, Google, Adobe and many others). Debate across the web indicted the Chinese government as the sponsor of the attack. Google said, through the attack accounts of some prominent human right activist were affected.

Google before now offered a filtered version of its search engine to Chinese market through Google.cn site following the Government regulation. After this, Google has vowed to make its search result unfiltered and has since started talking with the Chinese Government on the way forward.

The internet’s open nature has made thousands of people support Google with its stand to open up. While Google lovers in China dropped roses and encouragement letters on Google’s office in China, others outside of China poured ovation on Google move. Some attribute Google’s move as more of business that moral since Google currently plays behind baidu the market leader in China.

As Google continues its talk with the Government we expect possible outcome could be that Google pullout if it’s not granted unfiltered result. If Google stays after this, then it may lose its credibility amongst admirer.

Is Google right with this move?

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MTN Google SMS, Etisalat EasyCliq Great Products

MTN the largest mobile Telecom operator in Nigeria recently introduced Google SMS Search, an innovative product from Google which gives Telecom operator and mobile users flexible platform to get access to information on the go. The services allows you to get;

• Foreign News
• Local News
• Definition
• Q&A (Fact based questions)
• and Conversion

Etisalat one of the new entrants in the Telecom market in Nigeria, took a giant step by coming into the market despite the domination of MTN, Globacom and Zain. Their product EastCliq Facebook Service, I must say is very innovative. EasyCliq allows you to update your Facebook Status on the go. Things you can do include;

• Update Facebook status
• Upload pictures to your Facebook account
• SMS Blog
• Write on you wall

We recently reported the number of Facebook users in Nigeria(657,360), developing service to reach them I must say is a good development. I personally have used this service and I must attest to the fact that its launch is timely.

Adoption

MTN Google SMS

The advert is everywhere, there is really no estimate as to the number of MTN subscribers using this service. MTN’s growth in Nigeria has root in its usage of the media and I wont be surprised to see them move this also to every subscribers and non-subscribers. N10 is charged to use this service. Read more on their website here.

EasyCliq

In our last ranking of most visited site in Nigeria, we reported that Facebook has toppled Google to stand as the second most visited site in Nigeria after Yahoo. Looking at the rapid growth of Facebook in Nigeria, the product is timely but we need also to note that Etisalat user base is low compared to MTN. N20 is charged per update using this service. Read more their website here.

Similarities  and Differences

Both services does not require you to have internet access, network coverage is enough for you to enjoy it.

While MTN charges N10, Etisalat charges N20. I think this will count on Etisalat, for me the price should be reviewed.

Mathematically looking at the trends online; Internet users in Nigeria are moving more to Facebook than Google. I believe MTN can counter this by bringing in service like this. Etisalat really needs to push the Facebook Service more as I could see that the all night call is more advertised than this.

I will like to know choice, have used any of these services? How was it?

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