Introducing NaijaPulse, Nigeria’s foray into microblogging
Posted on | March 2, 2009 | 3 Comments |
I recently discovered NaijaPulse, an interesting new Nigerian startup created by the guys over at Naijand Inc. NaijaPulse is a microblogging service, similar to Twitter, that allows its users to send out short “pulses” of conversation and updates (limited to 140 characters) to friends and colleagues.
I’ve been a user of Twitter for some time now and am definitely convinced of the value of microblogging in both personal and business space, so I endeavored to find out the qualities of NaijaPulse and what it means to Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
What I found was that the more research I performed, the more I discovered a need to address some important aspects of microblogging and its uses in Africa. I believe NaijaPulse is just a beginning in that exploration. While I don’t intend on getting too long-winded on the technical merits of microblogging in Africa (save that for another post), I do hope to raise some questions and interest in what this type of technology means to Africa on a larger scale.
First, let’s talk about NaijaPulse! NaijaPulse is based on the opensource microblogging tool Laconica, the same service that the popular Identia.ca website is based on. (Laconica is free to download and use for public consumption.) While I’m not typically an early adopter on new tech startup sites, I created an account on NaijaPulse to see what this was all about. The service appeared to be rather easy to use and simplistic, which is the main attraction of microblogging.
Some great benefits of NaijaPulse are:
- It is built for Nigerian consumption.
As stated from the founder of NaijaPulse on Erik Hersman’s writeup, NaijaPulse allows Nigerians “to meet more people from the same background, country or even streets,” whereas they are “getting lost on Twitter.” This is a common theme for many social networking sites that both Africans and the Diaspora are using and cannot be stressed enough; Africans are getting lost in the shuffle. Built by Nigerians for Nigerians will most certainly help NaijaPulse if they are able to obtain some corporate sponsorship and support the site through advertising. (see below for challenges/opportunities) - NaijaPulse reaches out to an untapped market.
Erik Hersman wrote in August 2008 about “What Twitter’s Global Failure Means for Africa” and people took notice. Twitter had the added benefit of SMS support, which is incredibly important on the continent of Africa where mobile phone penetration is much higher than Internet users. However, when Twitter stopped international SMS support, it left a void for someone like NaijaPulse to step in and fulfill. As Erik Hersman perfectly stated at the end of his post on Twitter’s lack of SMS support in Africa “And, if nothing else, Twitter has done us all a favor by launching a global pilot project that proves out the usefulness of this type of service. Launching country- or region-specific clones of this same type of service is now a real option.” [If you want to learn more about why SMS matters in Africa, I highly recommend you read Erik Hersman's writeup, as I consider him an expert on mobile use in Africa.] - NaijaPulse already links up with Twitter and Facebook very nicely.
Built on the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, the open source Laconica software that NaijaPulse uses works well with others and uses a format that allows the users to actually own what they write and take it with them. I was able to integrate my NaijaPulse account easily with Twitter and Facebook so that when I post on NaijaPulse, it goes out to my Twitter followers as well as Facebook automatically without any hiccups.
Challenges/opportunities for NaijaPulse:
- Does not support SMS yet.
When Soyapi Mumba wrote on his blog in March 2007 about the benefits of Twitter in Africa, Twitter was gaining some serious steam largely because of its support for SMS. While we sit back and enjoy our fat data pipes in the developed world and watch streaming movies online, in Africa mobile SMS is king. Mobile penetration is crucial to reaching the population, as not everyone can afford time in their local Internet cafe and Internet access is almost always difficult to find in rural areas and dependent on unreliable and expensive satellites. NaijaPulse needs to take SMS seriously if they intend on reaching a marketable audience in Nigeria. As Erik Hersman stated, “Whoever does figure out a model that works in Africa could be sitting on a gold mine of users. If there was ever a simple communication service that can work well in almost every part of Africa, this could be it.” - Sustainability
Just as much as Twitter’s lack of a revenue stream is a hot topic in the blogosphere lately, NaijaPulse will eventually run into this dilemma as well. How will NaijaPulse make money? Will they be able to engage Nigerian business and celebrity to attract more users? Only time will tell, but this is one sure thing that should remain at the top of everyone’s concerns: long-term sustainability. - Scalability
It doesn’t take a power user on Twitter to know that the service is less than perfect. Twitter goes down frequently, especially when newsworthy events are happening and Twitter usage is high. This has plagued Twitter from the beginning but, so far, has not caused a mass exodus of users according to Twitter’s massive growth of 752% over 2008. While NaijaPulse’s users won’t add up to the numbers that Twitter can boast, they will still need to keep an eye on scalability and support when and if NaijaPulse takes off. - Branding
I have to agree with Loy Okezie over at StartUpsNigeria.com in his writeup. NaijaPulse’s branding doesn’t carry the weight I would have wanted for a new Nigerian startup and this is another aspect that I cannot stress enough. Branding, branding, branding. I’m hoping that Naijand Inc is able to really put some time and energy into a professional analysis of NaijaPulse’s brand. It needs to be reworked eventually to have a lasting impact on the Nigerian population.
Overall, I’m very excited about NaijaPulse. To see a microblogging startup come out of Nigeria is encouraging, even (especially) if it has competition from the big players. Competition is healthy for Africa. Like Erik Hersman, I’m expecting to see microblogging pop up in some of Africa’s “hot spots” such as Ghana, South Africa, and parts of East Africa very soon. The key to any success in Africa will definitely be the mobile market and access to the Internet via mobile phones. Whoever can combine microblogging with SMS will have great potential in Africa beyond the social context of microblogging. I’m hoping that NaijaPulse can address some of the issues I, and others, brought up and become a sustainable startup.
To the guys over at Naijand Inc, bravo for setting up NaijaPulse! I wish you the best in your pursuits.
Resources
NaijaPulse: http://www.naijapulse.com/
Follow NaijaPulse on Twitter: http://twitter.com/naijapulse
Laconica: http://laconi.ca/
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3 Responses to “Introducing NaijaPulse, Nigeria’s foray into microblogging”
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March 11th, 2009 @ 3:26 am
Hmm, interesting piece! Thanks for the mention, Josef:) Great initiative from the guys at Naijand Inc.
I agree with you about the challenges NaijaPulse will have to face down the road. I equally think that developing a business model might be hard, as most Nigerian companies are yet to adopt Web 2.0 tools, let alone invest in Internet startups.
On the use of NaijaPulse for business, I’m skeptical about how this could evolve. However, there will be a lot of buzz from the entire Nigerian community. No doubt.
By the way, nice blog:)
March 11th, 2009 @ 6:21 am
Thanks for the comment Loy! I keep up with StartupsNigeria on a daily basis, as it provides me with enthusiasm for what is happening in Africa.
I’m a big picture kind of guy, so I’m always looking ahead to see what all of these startups will eventually obtain. While many will crash and burn, in the meantime they are fueling innovation that will eventually sprout up something viable.
Thanks again for posting!
March 11th, 2009 @ 9:11 am
Glad you’re a regular reader. Unfortunately, the blog has in more recent times not been a regular one for reasons due to my day job.
Soon, we’ll have a more vibrant community and a whole bunch of startups struggling to be seen on StartupsNigeria.
It’ll be fun:)