The launch of Linda Ikeji's extremely own social networking website - Linda Ikeji Social - almost broke the Nigerian internet on Tuesday.
Bearing a remarkable resemblance to Facebook, Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) permits users to produce a profile, post pictures, add and look for good friends, along with share what's on their mind.
The long term prepare for LIS, supposing the execution is perfect, will be to competing Facebook in Nigeria. Obviously it is a burden, however it is unlikely anyone will wager versus Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) pulling it off all the same.
Even tech 'heads' who (ostensibly) know much better are afraid to prophesy doom for Linda Ikeji Social.
- ִ (@xylemic) November 1, 2016
LIS is offering incentives consisting of shared ad earnings and $3 rewards per original user-sourced news to catalyse engagement.
According to Linda Ikeji:
"There's a lot of cash from advertising on social media, a lot of brand names put cash on popular online platforms and we want to share a few of the cash we make on this platform with our users,"
The strategy seems very reliable. Barely 2 days after it first launched, the platform already lays claim to over 50,000 users and counting.
Almost 50k users on LIS in 24hrs. Chuffed! Thanks guys! If you have not signed up, please join us on https://t.co/7vKviiDjzG
- Linda Ikeji Blog (@lindaikeji) November 2, 2016
And from all indicators, the majority of these users are not simply nominal, they're quite active.
Why Linda Ikeji Social might pull through
In all this, Linda Ikeji is not resting on her oars. She has already started installing enormous signboard projects to create interest and awareness around LIS.
Besides, if there's something we've found out from the entire story of Linda Ikeji, it's not to undervalue her audience. With an audience that is mainly driven by selfless love for the famed blogger, Linda appears to have acquired a set of patriot to her course. While Linda Ikeji's Blog (LIB) has actually flourished for almost a decade for this factor, the shared earnings approach will only serve to include new sets of follower to this exact same course.
However, running a social networking platform needs heavy financial investment in tech. This includes putting together a group of world class engineers to keep track of the platform daily. The website went offline briefly, hardly two hours after in introduced on Tuesday. Following that was a prolonged period of over 12 hours where early adopters were not able to trigger or login to their accounts. These are indications of how things might go incorrect if the tech side isn't accorded due significance.
No doubt, LIS is still far from an ended up item. The website still needs a lot of enhancement in the area of usability and engagement.
For example, Facebook algorithms are so effective that they can determine the tone of one's feed; either by making sure that the feeds include just the important things specific to the user or by producing distinct features that keep such user entirely engaged. This is presently doing not have in LIS. However, Linda Ikeji's financially incentivised method to user engagement may well prove reliable in the long run.
I keep informing these "intellectual" to study the Linda Effect as a part of modern social anthropology. https://t.co/q3xJzW5NDU
- Funmi Iyanda (@Funmilola) November 1, 2016
The media business twist
Indeed, LIS does take the mould of a social networking site. However, its real nature still remains evasive. While the inability to predict the real form of LIS is a bit distressing, it likewise what makes it unique possibly.
In August, Linda Ikeji announced she would be broadening her organization to include other kinds of media like online TV network, an online radio station, a music website, and something else she called "LIS." However, the gesture was applauded. But really, everyone was unaware about how this was going to take place.
But somehow, LIS speaks of Linda's lofty intention and how she was going to bring them to fulfillment. Still at its early days, it remains to be seen what LIS will progress into, however there's every possibility that it will be a parent platform to Linda Ikeji's growing army of subsidiary business; enabling her to integrate all of these functions in one single platform.
Being that the case, the possible stream of untapped wealth this will open for Linda Ikeji is really scary. In all of this, one wonders if LIB could well wind up as her least .
While Linda Ikeji specified explicitly her objective to take on Facebook in Nigeria, the practicality of that remains to be seen. For all we understand, Facebook hosts a meagre 18 countless Nigeria's 97 million strong web population. There just might be adequate area for both of them.
