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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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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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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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. Though, it is supposed to be the preferred gateway for online payments but has scared web merchants away with its exorbitant setup fee of N150, 000. Interswitch charges N150, 000 for setup fee, 1.5% per transaction and N2, 000 flat on transaction above N150, 000. I’d expected that it automatically transfer its presence on the card system to online but I must say, its strategy is not internet-business friendly.

2Checkout a top brand in online payment gateway accepts credit cards (Master card, Visa card, Discovery and many others) on its platform. The setup cost is just $49 and 5.5% + 55 cent per transaction which is still high but takes off the setup huddle.

It won’t belong that competitors grab the space with the development going on around the web space in Nigeria. I have spoken with couple of innovators and we should expect many more e-payment platform before the year end. We could even have a Nigerian M-Pesa before December. GTB (they have a discounted web pay platform that works fine with Interswitch) recently launched a master card powered debit card and gradually disconnecting from Interswitch.

Personally, I think the setup fee should not be more than N10, 000 while they make up the money from the commission from turn over on the site operating on their platform.

What do you think about Interswitch strategy? Do you think they will change soon or be forced to change by the market? How do you think new entrants with influence their decision?

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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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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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Nigeria Communication Commission opens a twitter account, yet to tweet

As Nigerians catches the Twitter fire, the Nigerian Communication Commission (Regulator authority) as opened a twitter account. Available via @ngcomcommission

Twitter is a microblogging platform that helps you say what’s on your mind in 140 characters.

A visit to the twitter page of the commission, I saw no tweet, I think they can tweet something, how about recent growth in Mobile users?

It’s a welcome development though as I hope that companies and Government ministries get used to social media.

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Mobile Payment on the rise, Kenya and SA where is Nigeria

This post is a food for thought for my fellow technologist from Nigeria. Mobile Payment on the rise, Kenya and SA where is Nigeria?

Nigeria currently have more than 75million mobile phone users and no single viable mobile payment system to drive m-commerce in the country. I want to believe we have creative developers, sound investors and a ready market for the product but what is happening?

Our market will grow faster if people can pay for services as fast as they think about it! What should we do?

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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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