The launch of Linda Ikeji’s really own social networking site – Linda Ikeji Social – almost broke the Nigerian internet on Tuesday.
Bearing an extraordinary resemblance to Facebook, Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) allows users to develop a profile, post photos, add and look for buddies, in addition to share what’s on their mind.
The long term plan for LIS, supposing the execution is perfect, will be to rival Facebook in Nigeria. Obviously it is a herculean task, however it is not likely anyone will wager versus Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) pulling it off all the exact same.
Even tech ‘heads’ who (ostensibly) understand better hesitate to prophesy doom for Linda Ikeji Social.
– ִ (@xylemic) November 1, 2016
LIS is offering incentives consisting of shared advertisement profits and $3 rewards per original user-sourced news to catalyse engagement.
According to Linda Ikeji:
“There’s a great deal of money from advertising on social networks, a great deal of brand names put cash on popular online platforms and we want to share some of the cash we make on this platform with our users,”
The strategy appears to be very effective. Barely two days after it initially introduced, the platform currently claims over 50,000 users and counting.
Almost 50k users on LIS in 24hrs. Chuffed! Thanks guys! If you have not registered, please join us on https://t.co/7vKviiDjzG
– Linda Ikeji Blog (@lindaikeji) November 2, 2016
And from all indications, most of these users are not simply small, they’re rather active.
Why Linda Ikeji Social might pull through
In all this, Linda Ikeji is not resting on her oars. She has currently begun mounting huge billboard projects to create interest and awareness around LIS.
Besides, if there’s something we have actually gained from the entire story of Linda Ikeji, it’s not to underestimate her audience. With an audience that is mainly driven by generous love for the famed blogger, Linda appears to have acquired a set of follower to her course. While Linda Ikeji’s Blog (LIB) has actually grown for almost a decade for this factor, the shared income method will only serve to include brand-new sets of follower to this same course.
However, running a social networking platform requires heavy investment in tech. This involves putting together a team of world class engineers to keep track of the platform on a daily basis. The site went offline briefly, barely two hours after in released on Tuesday. Following that was an extended 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 a finished product. The website still needs a lot of enhancement in the location of use and engagement.
For instance, Facebook algorithms are so powerful that they can determine the tone of one’s feed; either by ensuring that the feeds consist of just the things particular to the user or by developing distinct functions that keep such user completely engaged. This is presently doing not have in LIS. However, Linda Ikeji’s financially incentivised method to user engagement might well show efficient in the long run.
I keep telling these “intellectual” to study the Linda Effect as a part of modern social sociology. https://t.co/q3xJzW5NDU
– Funmi Iyanda (@Funmilola) November 1, 2016
The media company 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 true type of LIS is a bit distressing, it also what makes it special maybe.
In August, Linda Ikeji revealed she would be expanding her business to include other forms of media like online TV network, an online radio station, a music website, and something else she called “LIS.” Even so, the gesture was praised. But genuinely, everybody was unaware about how this was going to happen.
But somehow, LIS mentions Linda’s lofty objective and how she was going to bring them to fulfillment. Still at its early days, it stays to be seen what LIS will develop into, but there’s every possibility that it will be a parent platform to Linda Ikeji’s growing army of subsidiary business; permitting her to integrate all of these functions in one single platform.
Being that the case, the possible stream of untapped wealth this will open up for Linda Ikeji is really frightening. In all of this, one questions if LIB could well end up as her least appealing platform.
While Linda Ikeji specified her intention 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 sufficient space for both of them.