Today, I wanted to get an update of the Top 100 websites visited in Nigeria, and was surprised to see that no Nigerian website is on the Top 100.

Sometime in May, I reviewed the most visited web startups and forums in Nigeria and the results from Alexa showed Nairaland ranked 13th, Naijahotjobs ranked 36th, NewNigerians ranked 70th, CareersNigeria ranked 78th, AllJobsNigeria ranked 80th, and Naijaecash ranked 99th.

In September, I noticed that two social networking sites - Naijapals and Legwork - have made their way into the Alexa Top 100 Sites in Nigeria, ranking 43rd and 75th respectively.

Today, none of these sites were anywhere to be found. Not even Nairaland, which is regarded as Nigeria’s most popular web destination. I hope this is not my system confusing me, but if it’s not, Alexa had better check their errors!

Update: Alexa has adjusted their algorithms. Hurraaaaaaaaayyyyy!!!!

I just got the scoop yesterday about the so-called Nigeria Web Awards, so I thought it’d be nice to mention it here on StartupsNigeria.

The Nigeria Web Awards 2008 claims to be the National Approved Web site award program launched to honour Nigeria’s talented webmasters. The awards would name the Best Website in four industry categories, namely, Commercial Category, Entertainment Category, Community Category and  Webmasters Honours.

Nominations and votes for best web site would come from interactive agencies and web site marketing departments in more than 20 states from around Nigeria.

Voting for the Nigeria Web Awards is said to have begun, but I couldn’t find an open voting system on the website. Over 300 verified nominations is said to have been recieved so far and this has been narrowed down to the 3 most-nominated sites and services in each category.

Every winner of this award would be provided with a web-embedded award to be placed on their web pages as a recognition of their achievement and credibility, which would be followed by an indoor interview with all the winning webmasters at four different television stations, namely, Sliverbird, AIT, Channels, and Galaxy, while winners that could not attend the event would be interview online in a virtual world.

Read more »

If you are looking for a Nigerian site that is focused on the vibrant Nigerian ‘Naija’ youth market, sharing their dreams, fears, aspirations and common goals, perhaps you need to get switched on.

Gradually becoming one of the leading voices for the Nigerian youth, SwitchedOnNaija (launched 2 years ago) continues to be an online medium to share and exchange ideas, learn from peers and the older generation. The Switched On brand has a vision to accurately capture the Nigerian Youth market - tagged “Generation N”.

The idea is to properly represent the average young Nigerian, and guiding young minds by breaking patterns such as double standard communication, and thus winning credibility within their circles.

Switched On publishes a monthly e-book called RELOAD, which delivers informal but insightful research and youth market observations. RELOAD has become an avenue to further understand young people in Nigeria. It also serves as a channel for corporate brands to properly plan and sustain huge marketing budgets while attracting these sets of young Nigerians.

So if you are ready to get switched on to naija, you can check them out!

African Independent Television (AIT), one of Africa’s largest television networks has become the first ever African television station to broadcast to the United States.

Based in Greenvale, NY, AIT USA is wholly owned by DAAR Communications PLC, owners of Nigeria’s first independent radio station, RayPower 100.5 FM, AIT and DAARSAT. (Thanks to Temi at Antigravityinc for the scoop!)

AIT USA has sponsored, covered, and acquired rights to events such as the annual Miss Africa USA pageant, the Nigeria Independence Day Parade in New York, and the yearly Nigerian Reunion celebrations, which are marketed and televised to increase the value to viewers, advertisers, and affiliates.

AIT USA’s programs are refreshingly different and original in tone as well as delivery with an overall programming mix that serves to entertain its audience. The TV station focuses on a general audience while “sharing the African experience” on a daily basis. In the United States and the Americas, AIT is available via Dish Network-online and television.

Read more »

Mobile Web has become a global phenomenon. In Africa, more and more Internet users are acccessing the Web everyday via their mobile phones. In South Africa, there are now at least 9,5 million mobile wap users, according to an article in Bizcommunity published in Matthew Buckland’s blog.

While South Africa and Egypt lead the way for mobile Web adoption (see Admob Report - Sept. 2008), Nigeria’s mobile web penetration is gradually exploding and might soon replace the traditional web. Lately, I’ve been following mobile web trends around Africa and I found that Opera’s State Of the Mobile Web Report for September 2008, indicates that traffic from Nigeria (for usage of Opera Mini), increased by 704.9% and page-view growth increased by 1690.2% since January 2008.

This means that there is a growing number of mobile internet users in Nigeria that are following mobile trends around the world with a focus on Africa. I also found that my.opera.com was ranked 6th amongst the top 10 sites by unique users from Nigeria. Thanks to Opera and Admob for these interesting reports.

In fact, according to Admob’s mobile metrics Report for September 2008, the worldwide traffic shows Nigeria on the 7th position in their top 20 list of countries, just below South Africa at 6th place (which is also in 6th position in Opera’s top 10 Opera Mini users worldwide). Well, time will tell if this trend would be sustainable in the coming months. My guess is: It will.

Read more »