Nigeria’s lost social media giant site
If there is any web asset that has ever came out of Nigeria in terms of user base and consistency I think it’s only one site in Nigeria that has been able to do that in the last 5 years but still, a lost asset I must say!
In the early years of this decade was exactly when I got involved in web technology. I enjoyed hanging around online, making friends, chatting on yahoo messenger and finding ways to connect with Nigerian online. The first option I had then (2004) was faceoffestac.net, then came nairaland.com in 2005, I went ahead to sign up on the site and I must say it really helped me a great deal!
On Faceoffestac.net, I enjoyed the commenting system, iMail and the chat system. It was the chat that was most fascinating! I could chat with Nigerian real-time, see their pictures and in some cases got to know them physically! The site gained traction and the usage was massive but suddenly, it went down, apparently because of heavy traffic which the site owner could not cope with. That aside, the biggest thing I saw was the owner’s (Oleku Konko as he was fondly called) inability to see the intrinsic value of that time. Social networking was just growing no one can really say if it would become a big industry but we young people enjoyed it than any other thing. Right now, the site has lost it!
Nairaland.com also giant that till this moment, no Nigerian site has been able to push aside for more than 4 years now! If there is anything I’m learning now, it’s the iteration part of startup, it’s very good to start small but you don’t necessarily have to remain so! When I joined nairaland.com around August 2005, I was working on a portal with focus on Ogba area of Lagos, I was very happy to find a home, since faceoffestac.net lost itself! I saw fellow Nigerians and we talked our own language (you, know pidgin of course!) and discussed issues that mattered to us. I remember vividly that some of the friends I made on the forum we had to move our connection out of the platform (as in hi5, yahoo messenger and others) and still comment on issues on the forum.
Silently we needed something new, fresh and exciting! Yeah! We needed it but we just couldn’t figure it out, we just couldn’t think about it but we constantly move to other social networks and come back to nairaland. I remember joining voice with Uche Ugo telling Seun to add Technology section to the forum which he did! We were excited but didn’t actually know the next step! I wrote PHP tutorial and took Java tutorial (led by sbucareer) on the site. I made good contacts and get fantastic jobs some of which took me outside of Lagos.
I think if these sites saw the future they would have owned it before Facebook got our attention, now Facebook is growing like wildfire seeming too big for Google, Microsoft and other big tech firm to quench! I doubt if a Nigerian website can actually topple the burgeoning giant, but there is hope since Nigeria now has a whopping 43million internet users and Facebook has only been able to get just 1.6million.
Our lost giant definitely is nairaland.com, even though it still remains a top internet brand in Nigeria, looking holistically I think it’s currently under-valued and may soon lose its place as more brilliant ideas come along! We have QQ leading the way in China, mxit fighting it out in South Africa, Orkut.com in Brazil and Studivz in Germany.
The main question now is what exactly do Nigerians need that a startup can build a solid solution around and be able to capture probably 10-20% of Nigeria’s internet users? What? So far I have not been impressed enough by Nigerian startups, I think something is still missing, I’m thinking! What could it be?
If there is any web asset that has ever came out of Nigeria in terms of user base and consistency I think it’s only one site in Nigeria that has been able to do that in the last 5 years but still, a lost asset I must say!
In the early years of this decade was exactly when I got involved in web technology. I enjoyed hanging around online, making friends, chatting on yahoo messenger and finding ways to connect with Nigerian online. The first option I had then (2004) was faceoffestac.net, then came nairaland.com in 2005, I went ahead to sign up on the site and I must say it really helped me a great deal!
On Faceoffestac.net, I enjoyed the commenting system, iMail and the chat system. It was the chat that was most fascinating! I could chat with Nigerian real-time, see their pictures and in some cases got to know them physically! The site gained traction and the usage was massive but suddenly, it went down, apparently because of heavy traffic which the site owner could not cope with. That aside, the biggest thing I saw was the owner’s (Oleku Konko as he was fondly called) inability to see the intrinsic value of that time. Social networking was just growing no one can really say if it would become a big industry but we young people enjoyed it than any other thing. Right now, the site has lost it!
Nairaland.com also giant that till this moment, no Nigerian site has been able to push aside for more than 4 years now! If there is anything I’m learning now, it’s the iteration part of startup, it’s very good to start small but you don’t necessarily have to remain so! When I joined nairaland.com around August 2005, I was working on a portal with focus on Ogba area of Lagos, I was very happy to find a home, since faceoffestac.net lost itself! I saw fellow Nigerians and we talked our own language (you, know pidgin of course!) and discussed issues that mattered to us. I remember vividly that some of the friends I made on the forum we had to move our connection out of the platform (as in hi5, yahoo messenger and others) and still comment on issues on the forum.
Silently we needed something new, fresh and exciting! Yeah! We needed it but we just couldn’t figure it out, we just couldn’t think about it but we constantly move to other social networks and come back to nairaland. I remember joining voice with Uche Ugo telling Seun to add Technology section to the forum which he did! We were excited but didn’t actually know the next step! I wrote PHP tutorial and took Java tutorial (led by sbucareer) on the site. I made good contacts and get fantastic jobs some of which took me outside of Lagos.
I think if these sites saw the future they would have owned it before Facebook got our attention, now Facebook is growing like wildfire seeming too big for Google, Microsoft and other big tech firm to quench! I doubt if a Nigerian website can actually topple the burgeoning giant, but there is hope since Nigeria now has a whopping 43million internet users and Facebook has only been able to get just 1.6million.
Our lost giant definitely is nairaland.com, even though it still remains a top internet brand in Nigeria, looking holistically I think it’s currently under-valued and may soon lose its place as more brilliant ideas come along!
The main question now is what exactly do Nigerians need that a startup can build a solid solution around and be able to capture probably 10-20% of Nigeria’s internet users? What? So far I have not been impressed enough by Nigerian startups, I think something is still missing, I’m thinking! What could
venture capital…thats what is missing…not the ideas or developers
show ya sef
Sherrif! Great POST! And I can't agree less with you about faceoffestac. At a point I was wondering what the heck the site is for that couldn't make Oleku to scale it beyond what it was then.
Nairaland? I think it is still kindda relevant. Ask some job seekers. lol
Mambe is right, we have ideas here in Naija but we need capital to scale our ideas. Yes Cost of hosting is coming down, cost of connetion too, but what about the cost of man power? Facebook is not been ran by only the owner you know. We need cash to bring people in on our project.
Look at Nollywoodfansclub.com, I can't run it alone and if I bring people in how much will I pay them and for how long?
Those are the main issues my man.
I am sharing this post because it is GREAT!
keep the fire burning man
Mambe I dont think VC is as lacking as genuine investment-worthy innovation.
@bola Yea! Money is beginning to show up, i think the next stage now is to know how package our ideas to attract investment. 43million is not small number, that's money!
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The question we all ask! The question we all ask! WHAT IS MISSING!
Personally, I believe the nigerian online community is a very unique one. Having a product that will be labeled 'indigenous' is not something that will be proudly stashed any time soon.
Several times, I try to think about what we Nigerians are known for: Can anyone answer? The Chinese have an history of building the Great Walls of the country with bare hands. Many other great nations have inspiring history of what they have been able to carve for themselves. But here, we have not taken time to give something original out.
Most of what we pride of are NATURAL RESOURCES. Things we met in our land. Even that, we have not effectively harnessed.
Going back to technology, for as long as Nigerians don't have a COMMON INDIGENOUS PLACE OF REFERENCE, nothing innovative is going to come out!
The typical social networking prototype will NEVER work if any Start-Up tries it out.
Our collective behavior has no identity, therefore creating an online identity will be hard.
Why did Nairaland succeed?
@seye that was a very deep perspective! I think I really need to ponder on that tonight. How is WordCamp coming?
We have NO excuse. The only problem I think we have is that we REFUSE to think out of the box. Why are Nigerian Developers producing Copy-and-Paste Facebook, Twitter clones? VC cant fund Garbage StartUps with zero feasibility! THINK!!!
I did my own thinking and came up with Gistcaster (http://www.gistcaster.com) which people initially thought was yet another twitter clone, but Gistcaster is actually a game changer! watch out People,
Gistcaster (http://www.gistcaster.com) is taking over!
The last time I checked there are 23.98 million internet users in Nigeria and that's less than a minute ago. Can you please tell me how you came about the 43 million figure?
If you are right about the figure then that's good news for all of us but I think there is a mistake somewhere.
@demola we have no excuse. Gabage indeed, no one want to lose money!
source is http://internetworldstats.com
According to
http://internetworldstats.com/africa.htm
Nigeria has and I quote “23,982,200 Internet users as of Dec/09, 16.1% of the population”. That's approx. 23.982 million and 43 million. I think it's important we get the figure right.
My reference was the site's stats as at June 2010 which i recieved in my mail. I will cross check for any disparity. Thank You.
[...] made in the country so far, is 10x more than Nigeria’s, am being conservative though! My article of yesterday generated insightful debate and I also learn something. The major thing we should realize is; no [...]
Successful online business goes beyond just having an idea.The financial backup to the idea is as important as the idea and that is what is really missing here.thanks
Idea+money=great business
Idea-money=frustration
Money-idea=failure
Lean startup help bridge this gap.
Hmn…I don't think this is something we can just open our mouth and say off shoot. it needs deep thinking. We really need to think and customise, esp. as it concearns our own locality. we dont need a nigerian version of twitter or facebook any moree. we need much better ideas that are localized. we need to think..then start small.
@make money
That was a powerful one! I love this part;
“…we need much better ideas that are localized. we need to think..then start
small. “
i totally agree with you ken, my question to every1 is if you have a unique or innovative product with strong financial projections and a good scallable business model with good return on investiments, do you know any venture capitalist or investors that would be intersted, if so pls let me know.jivjob@yahoo.com
i totally agree with you ken, my question to every1 is if you have a unique or innovative product with strong financial projections and a good scallable business model with good return on investiments, do you know any venture capitalist or investors that would be intersted, if so pls let me know.jivjob@yahoo.com
On some level Nigerian startups also have start thinking beyond the “Nigerian space”. A good idea is a good idea where ever it was started. Especially considering the issues with raising venture capital, I don't know that serious investors would be willing to pour money into a highly localized market however large its user base is.
Well why not if it can justify the investment? But as you know, real business is yet to take off in the country.
I guess we Nigeria developers have to come together and make feelfree.co the number one
I think you need to work more on that site bunch or errors..
How about making money from nollywoodfansclub.com and ploughing that back into the business to pay for the staff you need. Facebook started from his college room with his friends and they didnt earn a dime initially. They basically just owned shares of a company that wasn't worth a dime yet. My point is, if you've got a thing going, stop crying wolf on capital and just get going as best as you can. I don't think nairaland had much capital when it started, it grew nonetheless. Pls keep the fire burning!
I think http://www.swagzz.com A Nigerian Business Social Network Community is picking up fine.