Since 2008, the online Search Engine giant, Google Inc. have generated interest in Africa, and especially now in Nigeria.

Following a series of innovative competition with the likes of Google+, Google knol, Google Trader, and now GNBO, one can only trace an evolving dictatorship of sorts. After acquiring You-tube and other small subsidiaries, the conglomerate only gets bigger and better.

My concerns lie here: History has it that in ancient times -
[.] Countries were colonized by countries - e.g. Nigeria & Britain
[.] Continents were lorded by dictators - e.g. Europe & Adolf Hitler
[.] Competitions are controlled by the wealthy - e.g. Soccer clubs & wealthy billionaires.

and we know the fall-outs from each era, ranging from de-stabilized nations & ethnic groups, to Wold Wars (I&II), to disgruntled Competition bodies.

My predictions are: In the future from today -
[.] Countries will be colonized by Companies
[.] Continents will be lorded by Conglomerates
[.] Small Businesses will be controlled by Big Internet Companies

Don't we see a pattern here?,  Can't we see history repeating itself again? I'm bringing all this up so that we Internet/Web folks can be well informed and take  positions before any eventualities dawn.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Let's contribute our opinions here! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

STAY there complaining. Young people are acquiring wealth and using it to expand, and all you can see is complain.

stay there.

@werepeleri
I'm not complainin, i'm only asking 4 ur candid opinion.

but on a lighter syd; if you are among such Nigerians making wealth, show me the way then.
I'm ready to becom ur learn from your experience if you lyk. and thanks for replying to my thread>
I was hopin to use the feedback for another research and publish my findings again 'cos my passion is content development.

CIAO!

ok . Nice one.

Good point @Poster, how do we maximise the benefits? We can worry about the effects later please. thanks. 08055352018. BBM: 239ED139

@poster,@werepeLeri,Honestly speaking,am tired of complaining and physicaly and mentally ready to learn and attract good things to my life.I know you guys are visionlise,pls carry me along as you ard going higher.adek_2020@yahoo.com

I don't see any long term benefits except for Google. It is colonization- nothing else.

If we are not careful, they will use the might and technology of Google (which alone is bigger than all our banks put together) to deliver services at prices and with features that our local producers in the web market can not match. before long, they will push us out of the market.

I think we need to start worrying about the effects now. We are putting a whole emerging industry at risk. I read this morning that Nigeria has the second highest issues of software piracy. We have similar records for internet fraud ("Yahoo Yahoo". Guess what? When they kill the web design/hosting market (or make it almost unprofitable for locals to operate), the same people will publish bad statistics about us and refuse to accept our credit cards.

We better start worrying about it.

embrace google and make the best of it. leave all the worries in your head.

i take evryman i see as my superior; and in that i can learn of him, but i cant learn criticism from u coz critics are always behind, hope i'l see u at d billionaire side of life.

@Poster, I dnt see anything wrong with it. Itz called a business idea and innovation. Let them rule the net as far as am concerned, am proud of them.

Havent u benefitted from google search?

They even gave u the opportunity to blog and even make money on the net. As far as am concerned, any idea coming from google is for everyone to benefit from.

Like someone told u earlier. Embrace google and make the most of it.

@Post what we are lacking as a people in this country is 'visionary leadership' that will always put the interest of it's citizens and economy first before allowing any foreign input.
A leadership that will be proactive in reasoning,weighing the pros & cons of any potential investment with a view to ascertaining their short & long term effects on the economy.   Sadly,the present leadership seem to send wrong signals of outright desperation to potential foreign investors who in-turn seek to take advantage of this.

Truth is not all investments should be encouraged by our government,that anyone has money to invest in a Nigeria does not mean he should have 100% access to our economy.

That brings me to the point of 'protective investment policy' which should serve as a guideline for all foreign investment drive in the country,with a view to protect indigenous companies from being over-run by the bigger ones while encouraging compulsory ideological collaboration.

Then again we have the big challenge of ineffective policy implementation.

xtremeidea:

@Poster, I dnt see anything wrong with it. Itz called a business idea and innovation. Let them rule the net as far as am concerned, am proud of them.

Havent u benefitted from google search?

They even gave u the opportunity to blog and even make money on the net. As far as am concerned, any idea coming from google is for everyone to benefit from.

Like someone told u earlier. Embrace google and make the most of it.

We should be looking at a long term general economic benefit and NOT a short term personal benefit that cannot sustain a livelihood.

Nothing wrong with a Google investment as long as there are effective policies that will checkmate it's perceived dominance in the market.Truth is that Google can thrive in the country as long as it's existence does not threaten the survival of similar businesses.

werepeLeri:

STAY there complaining. Young people are acquiring wealth and using it to expand, and all you can see is complain.

stay there.

I tire oo

pls what is the benefit of this google invasion

where on erth have you been
what is globalisation?

bossinie:

@Post what we are lacking as a people in this country is 'visionary leadership' that will always put the interest of it's citizens and economy first before allowing any foreign input.
A leadership that will be proactive in reasoning,weighing the pros & cons of any potential investment with a view to ascertaining their short & long term effects on the economy.   Sadly,the present leadership seem to send wrong signals of outright desperation to potential foreign investors who in-turn seek to take advantage of this.

Truth is not all investments should be encouraged by our government,that anyone has money to invest in a Nigeria does not mean he should have 100% access to our economy.

That brings me to the point of 'protective investment policy' which should serve as a guideline for all foreign investment drive in the country,with a view to protect indigenous companies from being over-run by the bigger ones while encouraging compulsory ideological collaboration.

Then again we have the big challenge of ineffective policy implementation.  

wetin my guy don talk wey you begin shout leadership? if you are truly frustrated, go and contest for election and people will vote for you.

Somebody is got to lead. And better be the best of the lot, and GOogul is the best of the lot, why didn't Yahoo do it?, Why didn't AOL do it?,

@poster, ì feel u B-)

Ryabcool:


wetin my guy don talk wey you begin shout leadership?
Are you being serious or 'stone-dead' like your weird profile pics.

[s]if you are truly frustrated, go and contest for election and people will vote for you.[/s]
Totally off-course turn-around and there maybe hope for you.

The word 'daft' seems natural for your reasoning pattern,leadership is key to investment protectionism.I was being objective and futuristic in calling for proper protection of our indigenous companies before they are over-run by the likes of Google even with possibly better service at the detriment of our economy in the long run.

However for a 'weirdo' like you i believe this explanation must be weird to your 'daft' & 'sick' mind Looking at your profile i strongly advise you seek psychiatric help very FAST.

This is interesting. Very very interesting.

Guyz why r we stressing, ask 4 me, d guyz @ google r doing what nigerians r not yet ready to do. Still, think of d jobs dat google has created: translation of d site into d major Nigerian languages, etc. If you don't like d expansion of google, d question i think you should be asking is when will Nigerians start their own search engines, etc. If you think that google's expansion will have an adverse effect on the economy, i do not agree. One of the reasons why China and the east asian economies r doing well is because of outsourcing, and other trends like that. It will always to lead technological advancement for it's citizen's. Because these guys are way ahead of us, i think d best we can do is to take these opportunities rather than to let all this technology pass us by. I will say start your own than getting angry, but someone will say Nigerian's will not invest. Complaints are a terrible thing because we can and will always make up one. n's. Because these guys are way ahead of us, i think d best we can do is to take these opportunities rather than to let all this technology pass us by. I will say start your own than getting angry, but someone will say Nigerian's will not invest. Complaints are a terrible thing because we can and will always make up one.

why the complaining i think instead of complaining we should do our own stuff that would be better than google rather than sitting down, folding our hands and complaining

see black  man mentality,dont look for ways whereby you can make a good living out of the opportunities that will be created,people most especially young people are making massive amount of money off the web but in naija we attribute everything to colonalization and what not.are the ruling elites not colonizing us?build a biz for yourself out of this and let the crazies worry about what is not.

How would "Gnbo" solve any problem in nigeria? The clueless fans are thanking google for marketing thier product.

I'm surprised at most of the responses here. They show that people don't really understand what is happening (at least, not the big picture). Sure, people are making money from Google through Adsense. That was one of the reasons why Google got liked by most. But the same Google accused Microsoft at a time when they were not this big, even sued, for anti-competition techniques. At that time, Microsoft was the big conglomerate that controlled the tech world. They were using their size to subdue the growth of other companies, including Google. Eventually, the US Justice department ruled against Microsoft and several changes had to be made. In fact, it was ordered that Microsoft should be split into three different companies. Even with those, Google survived only because they were smarter on a new niche- the internet.

The same Google is doing now, what Microsoft was doing then- at least for the internet. Let me respond to a few issues:

softwarezx:

see black  man mentality,dont look for ways whereby you can make a good living out of the opportunities that will be created,people most especially young people are making massive amount of money off the web but in naija we attribute everything to colonalization and what not.are the ruling elites not colonizing us?build a biz for yourself out of this and let the crazies worry about what is not.

Many people have already built businesses around what Google has come to Nigeria to do. All are small. All these guys who advertise web design and hosting on Nairaland are examples. None of them is big enough to effectively compete with Google. Google is offering free hosting, with all their excellent features and you will register a domain for less than what most Nigerian web hosts can give and still make a reasonable profit. Eventually, many of these guys would be forced to crash prices terribly and some of their businesses won't even survive.

E jekwes:

If you don't like d expansion of google, d question i think you should be asking is when will Nigerians start their own search engines, etc.

Nigerians have their own search engines, etc. Nigerians have websites that cover almost anything you have elsewhere in the world. It's just that none is big enough to compete. Guess what? None will ever get big enough when we don't give them a chance and allow foreign companies with unarguably better offers to take over.

E jekwes:

One of the reasons why China and the east asian economies r doing well is because of outsourcing, and other trends like that. It will always to lead technological advancement for it's citizen's. Because these guys are way ahead of us, i think d best we can do is to take these opportunities rather than to let all this technology pass us by. I will say start your own than getting angry, but someone will say Nigerian's will not invest.

If I am right, outsourcing in the context of countries like India and China actually means that local guys (Indians, Chinese) get work from the US and the West, exported to them, not the other way round. It means that they are allowing the differences in their currency to be a plus, rather than a minus for them.

Besides, in China, Google has a hard time. This is because China manipulates it's policies to favour it's own citizens. Google is not China's most popular search engine. Even Facebook is not China's most popular social network. These people deliberately favour their own emerging companies instead of allowing the West to just take control. Ever heard of Baidu? it's the 5th most visited website in the world. It is China's own "Google", encouraged by China's deliberately manipulated laws to keep the real Google China in check. It has little or no relevance outside of China.

So, I agree with the guy who said we lack visionary leadership. If having a fairly popular website that makes money through Adsense is enough for you, that's fine. I do too, so I am not anti-Google. But I also know that there comes a stage when a company becomes so big that it can easily gain a monopoly of everything it touches. In the US, there are laws and other relatively strong companies to checkmate that. In China, there are laws and a government that won't sell out to the West. In Nigeria. . .

Drlumi:


So, I agree with the guy who said we lack visionary leadership. If having a fairly popular website that makes money through Adsense is enough for you, that's fine. I do too, so I am not anti-Google. But I also know that there comes a stage when a company becomes so big that it can easily gain a monopoly of everything it touches. In the US, there are laws and other relatively strong companies to checkmate that. In China, there are laws and a government that won't sell out to the West. In Nigeria. . .

I hope this comment will sink deep into the naive minds of most of these comment posters.

Will have to blame our leaders for the ever growing unemployment rate and the declining state of the educational sector,as these have combined to produce youths with a poor outlook to life & a 'get rich at whatever cost' mentality.It is sad to note that most of the reasons in favor of a Google investment is purely selfish & myopic while the general economic effect in the future is ignorantly or deliberately overlooked

Again it is really not their fault but the 'Leadership'

I am really proud of Google, they have made so many innovative young and old Nigerians to have the access to express themselves on the internet and also make money from the free resources they offer. Think of it, you blog and get known worldwide and in turn Google pay you for using their free resources. I don't see the need of worrying about Google's innovation, or can you think of any Nigerian company that can do what Google is doing? IF YOU CAN THEN LET IT OUT AND WE WILL SEND GOOGLE PACKING. I am a testimony of Google's innovation, If you want to find out visit www.naijatechblog.com

One Love

Jackson333:

I am really proud of Google, they have made so many innovative young and old Nigerians to have the access to express themselves on the internet and also make money from the free resources they offer. Think of it, you blog and get known worldwide and in turn Google pay you for using their free resources. I don't see the need of worrying about Google's innovation, or can you think of any Nigerian company that can do what Google is doing? IF YOU CAN THEN LET IT OUT AND WE WILL SEND GOOGLE PACKING. I am a testimony of Google's innovation, If you want to find out visit www.naijatechblog.com

One Love

Adding value is what any business that will thrive is all about & Google is truly ahead in this crusade no doubt.What i am saying is that we need to look beyond the now to the future in the overall interest of our Nation and it's economy.

I have consistently blamed our leadership for it's failure in effectively creating and enforcing policies that seek to protect our indigenous companies from being over-run by foreign ones with bigger financial & technological strength.

Frankly,i support Google's investment in Nigeria but i do not support our government giving them the kind of access that will be detrimental to the survival of our indigenous companies.
Also there should be a compulsory ideological sharing platform for the effective transfer of technology.

bossinie:

Adding value is what any business that will thrive is all about & Google is truly ahead in this crusade no doubt.What i am saying is that we need to look beyond the now to the future in the overall interest of our Nation and it's economy.

I have consistently blamed our leadership for it's failure in effectively creating and enforcing policies that seek to protect our indigenous companies from being over-run by foreign ones with bigger financial & technological strength.

Frankly,i support Google's investment in Nigeria but i do not support our government giving them the kind of access that will be detrimental to the survival of our indigenous companies.
Also there should be a compulsory ideological sharing platform for the effective transfer of technology.

profoundly remarkable and on-point!

bossinie:

Adding value is what any business that will thrive is all about & Google is truly ahead in this crusade no doubt.What i am saying is that we need to look beyond the now to the future in the overall interest of our Nation and it's economy.

I have consistently blamed our leadership for it's failure in effectively creating and enforcing policies that seek to protect our indigenous companies from being over-run by foreign ones with bigger financial & technological strength.

Frankly,i support Google's investment in Nigeria but i do not support our government giving them the kind of access that will be detrimental to the survival of our indigenous companies.
Also there should be a compulsory ideological sharing platform for the effective transfer of technology.

Exactly! It would be stupid to scare them off as we could do with some foreign investments. But it would be even more stupid to bring them in without setting limits. We would end up sacrificing our local companies.

Just by the way, ever studied how the slave trade started? White men came to Africa with mirrors and other "products" that our fore-fathers felt were good for the "economy". They welcomed the British and granted them unlimited access because they wanted more of these goods. Soon, the British men found out that by utilizing the greed of some of our fore-fathers, they could get them to sell their own kinsmen. The Whites didn't conquer us through a real war. They conquered us because they divided our forefathers through investments that only baited their greed. The British, even with their weapons, were not large enough to have ruled all the nations they ruled. They ruled them by subtle entry, gave gifts to the kings, gave the people wine and mirrors, even started schools for them, before long, they had infiltrated thoroughly. Then, they came with guns and since they were already well integrated into the systems, it was no more possible to resist them.

I think my point has been made.

Talking about baidu, China is a communist state and one of the reasons why baidu is successful is that it obeys Chinese governments censorship laws and google does not so baidu overtook google. But I agree to protecting the local businesses.