Hello everyone, I have watched with rapt attention, the loopsided growth been experienced by website owners. This cannot in anyway encourage the growth of the internet industry in Nigeria. A situation where you have so many sites being developed and designed but without Traffic on them signifies frustration to the owner, who mostly built with the intention of providing services or products for an ROI.

Today, we have so many BLOGS, FORUMS & SOCIAL NETWORKS but still don’t get the kind of traffic we desire for our sites, look at a Web2.0 like legwork, deoluakinyemi on wordpress, Nairaland using SMF, davidajao's blog and so on, you will discover, just about 1 or 2 of the sites are actually generating any thing tangible in terms of traffic.

It has been observed that it is not so much as the platform that is being used but finding how to generate traffic to such platforms/sites.

Too date, we still do not have a standard Social network can that boast of at least 1million Nigerians on its database. The closest we've gotten is I believe, seun's Nairaland forum, whereas, the likes of Facebook has over 100million people, including Nigerians. There are a host of others, even outside of the United States.

Our media companies that should hold the bull by the horn (as in the case of myspace.com), are fretting. We need to have a very formidable social Networks for Nigerians and by Nigerians. This need can cannot therefore be overemphasized as this is what will drive the engine into the new dawn expected for the Internet industry in Nigeria.

This brings me to the need to incorporate a new social network for the Nigerian People, I want responses from Nigerians on what they expect to see on this proposed Web2.0 site and how to grow it.

Also observe that the contribution now and thereafter is what will make the proposed project a reality. Recognition will be given to all participants.

Many thanks
Collins
Basking4me@yahoo.com

Well I am also getting this feeling, but there are soo many issues why a social network cannot get to millions in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

- How many Nigerians or Africans have access to internet at home ( luxury ),?
- How cheap is it to go to the cyber everyday just to have fun on a soo called social network where your not going to make any thing out of it ?
- Are the Nigerian Ventures (web 2.0 sites ) having the right networks ( business , marketing, HR, IT ) to handle such growths to millions of users, and do they have the "big problem" Venture Capital ?

If you are in Silicon Valley and you have a crazy idea like twitter.com, it can explode within two years but if you are in West Africa, who is ready to invest into a "war torn zone" ( as they address us ), thinking that when a war breaks all their servers will be turned to dust ??
But I think if you offer nigerians or Africans a place to meet people to better their lives( jobs, marriage, career networking ) just like what we are working on with www.webyfolio.com ( still a work in progress ) they will come there and also tell their friends, and with time you might get the VCs coming or you might get the traffic to make some money out of.
But remember, online ventures need patience, Facebook started in 2003 and it became big in 2007, Google started in 1999 and it became big in 2003, Myspace (2003 - 2006 ). Blogger started in 1999 and Google bought them in 2005, don't expect to start today and in a year you get 20 million users, but you should expect a Geometric Progression kind of thing.
like Facebook was with 15 million users in 2007 and it converted that figure to 70million users in 2008. but it took them 2003 - 2007 to get 15 million users.
I think I have exhausted all the reasons why web ventures don't grow that big in our continent.

@ mambenanje,

Thank you for your comments, and earlier advise. In as much as it isnt going to be child's play running a social network of our planned magnitude, however it is where the internet industry is turning to and we cannot afford to be left behind in global growth and development.

Venture Capital funds is not something that is very popular in Nigeria Yet, at least not in the areas of Web and Internet solution, which it is quite known for in The US. Virtually all known Majors in the internet and computer industry have grown through the support of venture capital funds, a very popular one is 'sequiao' or so, cant remember the name now. They have provided VC to google, yahoo and so many other internet startups and are reaping the fruits today.

In Nigeria, the only bank we see to be really supporting the ICT industry is Zenith Bank and I dont even think they provide VC funds for the ICT industry.

The area I really have trouble with is the proliferation of so many websites without traffic, then of what essence is the site building when you cant really get people to glueup or stick to your site.

ok lets talk about making people visit your site.
These are some of the things that will make people come to your site everyday:
- Daily service : Do they need something from your site everyday, I personally dont visit nairaland everyday but I visit www.google.com/analytics everyday ( I guess webmasters know why )
- Innovations: if your site keeps getting some innovations, it will cause news and bloggers around will write about you and people will turn to visit your site. Facebook launched the platform and after that new applications have been coming up which make bloggers, journalists write more about facebook and hence giving their site more attention
- updates: if your site gives users some updates by email or phone or TV or , then the users will keep coming to your site.

I have plans to setup a big web 3.0 platform for Africans just like www.twine.com but its still a plan, and it might happen only if I we get some Venture Capital with my partner.

Funding has always been an issue for Nigerian online businesses. There is only so much you can do without adequate funding. The situation in our country today unfortunately, does not support small-scale businesses. I'm refering to the banks here.

Do you know that Facebook is the 4th most popular website in Nigeria? Social networking is already here!

trust is a major issue with ventures of this nature. would you trust that whatever info you give will be safe and not compromised?
good concept though because it would enable companies in naija target their ads to the right audience

it's interestin,seun, could u give the list of top social network in Nigeria.top 5,

building a social network would be profitable,internet access is catchin on like wild fire.a social network as profession and functional as facebook by a Nigerian would make the next Bill gate(or would it be google guys),

with offline ad and google ads being the major means of publicity.the only draw back i see is the finance.finance to build this as it might require you running this months where investors see that it actually happened (but i see it being easier for a developer to get finance) and then you'd recoup in a flash with running an ad application like that of google,when advertisers pay on click basis.

@Seun,
hich are the top sites in Nigeria today?

My guess is that most nigerian sites are concerned with their popularity/traffic and profit. They are less concerned with the agility / performance of their platforms. No ones trying to make it faster/ better / more user focused etc.

We are all acting like technicians and not like craftsmen. We dont reallly care about our work, we are more interested in the clicks that come in.

thats why legwork would try to do all things from day one.

Nairaland is a success today because its focused on discussions not adding mods everywhere to satisfy all niche markets (yes niche).

facebook is functional and serves a purpose, google is for search, yahoo does email and you can get your naija used cars swiftly on nairalist.

In essence, these sites serve a specific purpose targeted to make your life BETTER. hence the traffic.

Your sites will forever be niche and restricted to nigeria if they have nothing to offer the world at large.

No nigerian site will ever reach the 100 million mark if it doesnt serve a useful purpose to all accidental users.


Formspring is now a million-member site because the developer, a nigerian-born coder, focused on doing something all people want (provide a way for people to ask you questions online). simple.

So lets stop whining about traffic and focus on beautiful functionality, great UIs and great internal cultures. thats what makes the big ones big.

Enough said.