A presentation I did for BarCamp Nigeria in Lagos on 25 April 2009.

1. Startups, Trends, New Products
by Justin Hartman, MD, Afrigator Internet

2. Largest social media aggregator in Africa
Jul 07: #20 of 31 quot;top non-US startups to watch
worldwidequot; by Business 2.0 (money.cnn.com)
Sep 08: Partly aquired by MIH Print Africa, a division
of Naspers Limited
Dec 08: One of the Top 10 International Products for
2008 by ReadWriteWeb & featured on
New York Times (nytimes.com)
afrigator.com | adgator.co.za

3. Largest social media aggregator in Africa
Jul 07: #20 of 31 quot;top non-US startups to watch
worldwidequot; by Business 2.0 (money.cnn.com)
Sep 08: Partly aquired by MIH Print Africa, a division
of Naspers Limited
Dec 08: One of the Top 10 International Products for
2008 by ReadWriteWeb & featured on
New York Times (nytimes.com)
afrigator.com | adgator.co.za

4. First version of Afrigator (Alpha 1)
afrigator.com

5. Second version of Afrigator (Alpha 2)
afrigator.com

6. Third version of Afrigator (Beta 2)
afrigator.com

7. Current version of Afrigator (Beta 3)
afrigator.com

8. How we make money - http://adgator.co.za
afrigator.com

9. How we got there...
1. Self-funded, garage startup (VC doesn’t exist in SA)
2. Passionate about our product
3. Delivered innovative products through providing
value to users
4. Great world-wide exposure
5. Tried to get funding through the Knight
Foundation & Hasso Platner Ventures
6. Got “lucky”...
afrigator.com

10. Social Media Trends in Africa
afrigator.com | adgator.co.za

11. Registered Blogs by Country
11.2%
1.2%
3.3%
South Africa
Nigeria
5.8%
Africa General
Kenya
Egypt
Tanzania
7.8%
Rest of Africa
60.2%
10.5%
All data supplied by Afrigator.com and accurate as at 23 April 2009
afrigator.com

12. Traffic to Blogs
Total Page Views 162,354,849 (avg. 6,764,785 month)
Total Unique Users 68,835,155 (avg. 2,868,131 month)
Page Views (last 10 mon)
• 9,483,739 monthly
• 316,125 daily
Unique Visitors (last 10 mon)
• 3,701,041 monthly
• 123,368 daily
All data supplied by Afrigator.com and accurate as at 23 April 2009
afrigator.com

13. Scanning the Blogosphere
614,376 blog posts indexed
Blog posts in 2007
• 77,447 in South Africa
• 68,803 in Africa
Blog posts in 2008
• 216,323 in South Africa
• 170,968 in Africa
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

14. Monthly Blog Growth
1,500
1,414
1,125
1,000
779
734
750 707
408
375
173
168 165
156 154
150 150 145
139
138 137 135 127
126 121
97
0
Jun 07
Jul 07
Aug 07
Sep 07
Oct 07
Nov 07
Dec 07
Jan 08
Feb 08
Mar 08
Apr 08
May 08
Jun 08
Jul 08
Aug 08
Sep 08
Oct 08
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

15. Monthly Blog Posts
100,000
93,323
75,000
62,291
49,349
50,000
44,759
39,764 38,568 39,880
34,888
33,073
31,762
29,148
24,856
25,000 21,360
19,549
17,224 17,043 17,161
15,697
13,471 13,967 14,074 12,684
0
Jun 07
Jul 07
Aug 07
Sep 07
Oct 07
Nov 07
Dec 07
Jan 08
Feb 08
Mar 08
Apr 08
May 08
Jun 08
Jul 08
Aug 08
Sep 08
Oct 08
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

16. African News
5,000
4,730
4,333
4,199
3,750
3,448
3,263
3,088
2,859
2,646
2,580
2,563 2,519
2,482
2,383
2,500
2,100
2,037
1,250 1,050
628
0
Nov 07
Dec 07
Jan 08
Feb 08
Mar 08
Apr 08
May 08
Jun 08
Jul 08
Aug 08
Sep 08
Oct 08
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

17. Youtube Videos
15,000
11,925
11,250 10,617
9,461
8,294
7,983
7,500 6,998
6,296
5,821
5,455
4,195
3,750
759
538 351
35 31
30 28
0
Nov 07
Dec 07
Jan 08
Feb 08
Mar 08
Apr 08
May 08
Jun 08
Jul 08
Aug 08
Sep 08
Oct 08
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

18. Flickr Photos
100,000
90,791
74,748
72,322
75,000
68,500
59,283
50,000
25,000
0
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

19. African Tweets
60,000
52,654
45,000
36,019
35,826
30,000
17,039
15,000
2,147
212
97
0
Sep 08
Oct 08
Nov 08
Dec 08
Jan 09
Feb 09
Mar 09
All data supplied by Afrigator.com - March 2009
afrigator.com

20. Our latest gator is born
afrigator.com

21. http://gatorpeeps.com
afrigator.com

22. Facilitating the conversation
afrigator.com

23. Find your Peeps by name, email, or URL
afrigator.com

24. Community is the core focus
http://gatorpeeps.com/community/bcnigeria
afrigator.com

25. You own the hashtag #bcnigeria
http://gatorpeeps.com/community/bcnigeria
afrigator.com

26. What’s on the way...
1. Gatorpeeps will have a strong mobile component.
2. SMS “peeps” from a local number in your country.
3. API access for application integration.
4. GatorSnap - Share pics via web & MMS.
5. GatorURL - Share links.
afrigator.com

27. To summarise
Social Media is booming across the continent. Growth
is exponential and will continue to be.
Web 2.0 startups in this climate are a lot about hard
work, passion and getting lucky in the process.
Just Do It! Don’t wait for the perfect idea or funding.
It most likely won’t happen.
Start Peeping with users from Africa. It’s the place to
be to engage with like-minded individuals.
afrigator.com

28. Thank you!
Email: justin@afrigator.com
Blog: http://justinhartman.com
Peep Me: http://gatorpeeps.com/justinhartman
afrigator.com