StartupsNigeria has set the goal of breaking through the Alexa Top 100 000 websites in the world by December 31, 2008. The site which has witnessed a surge in its traffic within the past two months attributes this increase to its new features including interviews, advice, community on Facebook and LinkedIn as well as social media sites.

StartupsNigeria is a tech news blog for startups, mobile apps and web technologies that are making a buzz around the new media space, with a special focus on Nigeria. The blog which was launched about 6 months ago has gotten the attention of several social media players and blogs and has also been reviewed by a few sites. Some of them are: White African, StartupAfrica, Sturvs, Kabissa, African Trade Hub, Notjustok, TechMASAI, Naijagal. The site also appears on the blogroll of several sites around Africa.

We hope to break through Alexa Top 100 000 websites by December 31, 2008, and are asking for your support to achieve this goal.  We are poised to become a world-class tech/media blog that covers technology and innovation out of Nigeria. You can subscibe to our feeds.

Update: StartupsNigeria’s Alexa traffic rank is at 180,429. View latest here

Join our Facebook Social Group for Entrepreneurs

For some time now, we created a social group for web entrepreneurs on Facebook, the most popular social networking site in the world. The group currently has about 25 members who benefit from an online community of social entrepreneurs.

Our hope is to build a web community of people interested in start-ups and ideas and give them an opportunity to network using a well-known social utility such as Facebook. If you are yet to join this community, we encourage you to do so. That way, you can meet web entrepreneurs, generate business ideas and develop innovative start-ups.

In the future, we shall create a business networking space here on StartupsNigeria, where users can interact with other business-minded people and thus build a web community of entrepreneurs. You can join the StartupsNigeria Group on Facebook here. It’s FREE.

Join our LinkedIn Business Group for Entrepreneurs

Since we know that more business-like people prefer to use LinkedIn, we decided to create a business group for entrepreneurs. The group has a growing number of 20+ members who engage in discussions around innovation and entrepreneurship.

As with the Facebook group, this initiative is young and has potentials for growth, so we urge you to join, meet and network with other like-minded people. Our hope is to build a web network of business-minded and professional individuals who are interested about innovation and entrepreneurial ideas. You can join the StartupsNigeria Group on LinkedIn here. It’s FREE!

P.S: When you join, we’ll need to approve your request, and this may take between 12-24 hours, as the case may be.

We Welcome and Value Your Suggestions

We are delighted that this blog - StartupsNigeria is gradually becoming an online community of web entrepreneurs and start-up founders. We appreciate all your comments, recommendations and support.

Since we believe in adding value to our audience, we welcome our readers’ suggestions on how we can become better at what we are currently doing. We love improvements and are thinking of adding some interesting features to this blog. But we also need your inputs in order to give you value.

• Are there any site improvements (design, layout, widgets, etc) we need to make?
• Can you suggest some features we can add to this site?
• What other areas around technology and innovation should we cover?
• Would you support an online community of web entrepreneurs?
• Should we include a jobs board for outsourcing, freelance jobs in IT/software, design, etc?

If you have ideas you want us to consider, please send them via email to startupsnigeria (at) gmail.com

You can also leave your suggestions on the comment box. Thanks.

Last week, I wrote an article here about a Web 2.0 Blogs Aggregator for Nigeria, and this got some reactions from a few social media players. (See comments on the post here). I must admit that I didn’t realise that Nigeria had a blogs aggregator, NigerianBloggers.com, and when it was pointed to me, I decided to take a close look at the site. The site was created by Kayode Muyibi of Nairahost.

At first glance, I didn’t think the site was web 2.0ish enough even though it was built under an open source package called Gregarious as well as web applications such as XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0. So my argument was that if the site must be considered a Web 2.0 blogs aggregator, then it had to have most of the features of similar sites around the world. Features such as stats, charts, widgets, badges and other tools.

An example is South Africa’s Amatomu, which ranks bloggers and provides charts and statistics for their blogs. Amatomu also has the ability to track trends and monitor keywords in the local blogosphere via buzzgraphs. With amatomu, bloggers compare their blogs by monthly reach, traffic, etc with those of their competitors to find out who is leading on the blogosphere. The site also lists the top 500 South African blogs based on unique readers, posts, links, etc

A look at NigerianBloggers.com shows that the blogs aggregator has been around since 2005, (way before Amatomu started in March 2007), and provides feeds from Nigerian blogs in real-time. The site currently aggregates about 400 blogs, written by Nigerians at home and abroad from personal blogs to business blogs (covering entrepreneurship, tech, gadgets, mobile, software, apps, etc).

Some of the popular sites registered on NigerianBloggers.com are Bella Naija, DeoluAkinyemi, Black Looks, NaijaEcash, Ladybrille, Ore’s Notes, Oro and Timbuktu Chronicles.

NigerianBloggers.com seems not to have any monetization model as there are no ads or adsense on the site, so I wonder how the site makes money. From what I can see, NigerianBloggers.com is personally funded and perhaps gets support from donations. This perhaps explains why the site is yet to adopt other interesting features of blog aggregators that are of world’s standard.

I’m personally impressed with the fact that the site was basically not created to make money, but will be interested to see how it can develop a business model and integrate other web 2.0 technologies and applications in the near future.

After the success of the launch of NigcomSat-1 in May 2007, Nigeria is set to launch two other satellites - NigcomSat-2 and NigcomSat-3.

Nigeria’s satellite company, NigComSat manages and operates the first geostationary communication satellite in sub-Saharan Africa, NigcomSat-1, which was launched physically from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s southwest Sichuan Province, and uses China’s Dongfanghong IV carrier as a telecommunication and broadcasting platform.

The satellite which was launched in May 2007 based on a contract signed in December 2004 between Nigeria and China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) was later handed over to the Nigerian government in July 2007 after several days of in-orbit adjustments and tests and the installation of two ground stations.

Why the sudden launch of NigcomSat-2 and 3?

We’re made to understand that the imminent launch follows the completion of 300 community telecommunication centers and deployment of NigComSat-1 services to West Africa. Moreover, the plans for NigComSat-2 and 3 form part of the satellite firm’s expansion vision to ensure that the benefits of the satellite’s applications are enjoyed by all on the African continent, according to Ahmed-Rufai, MD of NigComSat.

With this launch, it is hoped that NigComSat would get indigenous investments in the country as a result of demonstrating its capacity and capability to develop into a huge commercial enterprise as well as compete in the international satellite market with other established satellite operators.

My thoughts on this

I think that if the Nigerian government institutes technology policies that would support the launch of these satellites, it will position NigComSat as one of the leading global satellite operators.

Today, I’m featuring an interview with Seun Osewa, founder of Nairaland, Nigeria’s largest online forum and discussion portal which currently ranks 16th on the Alexa Top 100 sites in Nigeria. The site which started in 2005 has grown to become the most popular site in Nigeria.

In this interview, Seun Osewa talks about his site, which he sees as a personal website, rather than a start-up.

SN: Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?

Seun: I’m Seun Osewa, 26 year old webmaster and aspiring film-maker.

SN: What is the name of your blog/start-up/company?

Seun: The Nairaland Forum located at http://www.nairaland.com

SN: Please tell us about your blog/start-up/company?

Seun: Nairaland is a discussion forum for Nigerians. A place to ask questions and get useful answers on any topic of interest. It also has a very vibrant job section.

SN: What is unique about your blog/startup/company?

Seun: Nairaland is the most popular Nigerian website on the Internet.

SN: How many people are currently using your website services (e.g. feed readers, visitors)?

Seun: So far, we’ve accumulated almost 250,000 registrations and at peak periods we have more than 1000 visitors and 250 registered users active.

SN: What kind of marketing and/or advertising strategy do you use for your website?

Seun: At the beginning, I often resorted to begging acquaintances to post on the forum and posting relevant threads from the forum on various Nigerian mailing lists. Currently, Nairaland relies on search engine traffic and word of mouth, both of which are free. Most of my time is spent just trying to keep Nairaland organized in spite of all that free traffic.

SN: What are the main web technologies/tools you use to monitor the performance of your website?

Seun: Google Analytics.

SN: What is the monetizing/revenue model for your website?

Seun: Google Adsense.

SN: Which websites are the main competitors in your market segment/sector?

Seun: Naijahotjobs.com and CareersNigeria.com

SN: What challenges do you currently face as a web entrepreneur?

Seun: Spammers and scammers who want to render the site unusable.

SN: Do you have any thoughts on our Universities and their curriculum in terms of promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation amongst students?

Seun: I really wish I could answer this question, but my thoughts on university education are too radical for public consumption. Alas!

SN: Do you have any advice for people who want to launch new startups?

Seun: I don’t feel qualified to advice anybody yet, but it won’t hurt to remind people to focus on profitability when just starting out. This means marketing and cost control. When your business is well established you can start thinking of making the world a better place.

The new wave of crime on the web called ‘cybercrime’ which has been a threat to Internet safety in Nigeria has gotten the attention of the world’s largest software company, Microsoft.

In a campaign called “The Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (ISSPIN), Microsoft is partnering with Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), a social enterprise that seeks to help deliver ICT for socio-economic opportunities in Nigeria. The US$50,000 campaign is sponsored by PIN and Microsoft in partnership with the Computer Professionals’ Registration Council of Nigeria, the Nigeria Computer Society, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, Planet One Entertainment and Teledom Group.

This partnership will educate the Nigeria’s youth on cybercrime and provide opportunities for them to use their computer skills positively, thus providing technical training, investigative and forensic assistance and new technology tools to combat cybercrime.

My Opinion

I think that Microsoft’s involvement in the issue of cybercrime in Nigeria has come at a very critical period when there is an increase in mobile web usage in Africa and Nigeria as well as online payment platforms around the world.

My hope is that the campaign will help create a better image of Nigeria on the Internet and thus provide great opportunities for Nigerians to conduct online businesses legitimately.