Naijaborn, Nigerian social network launches
Naijaborn a social networking startup for Nigerians from Francis Omokhape Oghuma and Mambe Nanje Churchill (*updated) has just launched the site publicly. I have been keeping a tab on the site ever since i found out about it and i am glad they have finally launched. I know what you are thinking, not ANOTHER social network.
However i think naijaborn is different for a few reasons:
They have not used any external code or whitebox social networks. Why do i think this is important? Well its very easy to launch a social network with whitebox software you could get it done in a day. However, it usually means you customization is a problem and your social network looks like 100’s of others out there. To build something differentiated you need to code it from the ground up or make significant modifications to an existing product(i.e Mxit).
Naijaborn features a custom search module (more on why this is important later), The search results are ranked by Activity on the site. This is an interesting option, as it will encourage activity and makes sense when you are searching for people. However relevance should be key as well when you are searching for content and it may lend it self to users trying to game the system to appear higher on the rankings. Naijaborn is aiming to be a people directory for the Nigerian diaspora and for those at home. What i find interesting however are the planned features of mobile integration
[mobile] The future of this search module could apply to mobile. Imagine something like IYAM.MOBI integrated to naijaborn.com and you can search for Nigerians world wide using simple SMS messages and get response via SMS. I can stand in Calabar and wish to contact a medical doctor. I will just take my phone send sms “medical doctor Calabar” to naijaborn.com sms gateway and naijaborn.com will give me results by sms of five doctors in Calabar with their numbers and I call them.
[maps] Imagine putting a map search functionality where you can find Nigerians world wide on the map and then view their naijaborn.com profiles and all.We are still working on the search module and we will soon be adding things like natural language recognition where you can search for “web developer in nigeria using php” and get results.
There is more and our current beta testers and future users will help us a lot while they use it and give us feedback.
Other then that the site has an activity stream, lets you post items like news/blog posts/business ideas, upload your music, upload artwork (images). Though i think the site seems to be trying to cater for both business social networking (i.e Linkedin) and social networking (i.e Facebook) at the same time, with a mix of a business directory. I think it would be better to pick one of those and work on that, and add the other part at a later stage. Congrats to the guys over at Naijaborn on the first public release.
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Hello ,thanks for the post.I am the co-founder of naijaborn.com ,the developer is mambe nanje churchill my co-founder he heads the technical part of the platform,i am incharge of business development & marketing.thanks for the review.
naijaborn.com
impressive …NAIJABORN ROCKS !
Hey ismail, we just created a common playground for the world to experience naija people & content on a global scale and definitely would attract people from different backgrounds but we are definitely appreciate your tips and we ready to position the platform globally! I would allow @mambenanje to reply the technical issues and questions here.
Francis, thanks for the info. What platform has it been developed in? Have you used PHP/Python? and any frameworks?
Anything technical! I mean it lol! its mambe nanje! i am the business and concept man!
hey nice post Ismail, and I am happy you were following us while we were in private beta.
the platform strives to get a blend between linkedin, facebook, twitter and make it suitable for Nigerians. The idea is to make every Nigerian express his or her self and get known for what he or she is doing. so your social and professional life. I have seen some rather impressive profiles of business men who write about their business in their biography and now you get where this is heading to.
Focusing on one(linkedin or facebook style) will not make us unique and better, but getting a comfortable mix that will fit the African culture in the Nigerians is what we heading to.
Thanks for pointing out that the search has to get relevance, Mukoshy can tell you more about this because he will work on the platform API and he will build the advance search upon the API. He is coming up with something we call USER TRUST METER. so that when you search the users trustworthiness and his activity will give his search ranking. This way when you meet people on the platform you can be sure he is trusted or not.
Thanks for your ideas and comments. it will help us get there.
merci
hey Ismail after posting I saw your new questions. But for the platform we wont like to reveal what we used underneath so that we will have some security by obscurity. but if you wish to know just for your personal self please hit me by email, and I will give you the details. One thing is sure its running on open source technologies.
Good concept! Good programmers! I still think the user interface should be tweaked a little…made more attractive
Hi seye,thanks for your kind remarks! we are definately working on the user interface! we know its essential to growth! thanks once again
Good site. I will join and promote it like i always do to encourage new webmasters. Meanwhile what is left to do now is to get traffic to the site and to make them register. Its always difficult to convince people to join social network sites especially with the influx of applications on facebook and co. I hope you guys wont sleep, cos the race just started.
@Seye Kuyinu,
Well, the interface is also a beta design. We will surely be improving it soon.
@afrowall.com
For sure, our work has just started and we’re working towards building yet another strong platform that will be hopefully accepted widely.
I don’t think we’ve got the time to sleep, but maybe time to rest.
Uhm Sorry, I am Ahmad Mukoshy from the Naijaborn team.
@-all : I’ll be working on the advanced search system via the Naijaborn upcoming API. It will feature live search for Nigerians with additional credits via Popularity and Trust meter which will be calculated based on user’s activities on Naijaborn.
Proudly 9jaborn.
Hello afrowall! we definately appreciate your kind words and support! lets communicate better we are not resting,we just started the battle! info@naijaborn.com lets take this conversation to the next level!
God bless
papa qube
afrowall.com said it all, facebook is a big headache to all social networks, they’re miles ahead because they start it all, and they have all the big media in there pocket like bbc, cnn etc…
Francis, this is great exposure. Well Done!
Thanks affiong! We are greatful to startupafrica.com
The platform would be officially launched in Johannesburg & Nigeria later in the year.
Great work guys, keep growing it.
Would recommend making as much stuff public as you can so new users can see what they’re joining before they sign up, without impinging on users private data. When someone hits the site, having barriers to entry is not going to encourage them to join up.
Do some Google Analytics A/B testing to test against that and see what works for you.
Posted at: http://technologyforafrica.org/blog/2009/06/10/naijaborn-nigerian-social-network-launches/ too.
thanks for the tips gareth.
appreciate my cto wud deal with it
regards
@Ismail – Nice review! Shame I’m not organized enough to do a review here about the startup:-(
@Naijaborn Team – Great work. I’ll be keeping an eye on your startup. Shame you couldn’t get a review on Startups Nigeria:-(
Who knows, NB could be voted “startup of the year” when we’ve re-launch the SN platform into a community. But, you’ve got to lose a lot of sleep to make that happen;-)
Also, nice to see that lots of blogs have given you guys a review.
Congratulations!
well i am on it, and Mambe, think the site looks great,
Thanks Loy!
we appreciate
we cant wait to see startupsnigeria to come up
we definately working hard to get the startup to tht standard
regards
interest post, i didn’t know about this particular social network cool
watch out for more stunts on NAIJABORN.COM
this is the most interesting gig on the african continent in a while, well done guys. Lookingfoward to hearing more about the latest developments of the network. Keep intouch.
hey cebo
thanks for the kind words
we growing everyday ! new features would like ismail to go on naijaborn and see our new additions you can check this out here http://www.blog.naijaborn.com
the future is green !
show ya sef !
@Francis Oghuma, Mambe Nanje,Ahmad Mukoshyi: I am the co-founder of Adiq8 Limited (pronunced as Adequate)an online advertising firm. We serve ads on the websites of publishers in our network through our hi-tech platform which enables all sorts of targeting and analysis and we do it for free, the only time we take some percentage is if the ads are brought by us.
I think the relationship between my firm and yours will be a mutually beneficial one with capacity to increase revenue and monetise your ad inventory.
I look forward to hearing and setting up a meeting with you.
Regards…
Actually you guys did a great job at naijaborn all that is left now is to see the general response by the ordinary Nigerian. Good Luck
hey Dan Ewah
please contact us via info@naijaborn.com and lets continue talking on this collaboration. we are inline with this and this is the right time for such a gesture
regards