Kenyan social media sites fail to secure numbers for adverts
Failure to attract large user numbers online is pushing local social media sites slowly out of operation as they fail to attract advertising revenue. FILE
What you need to know:
Networks lack critical mass to attract revenue from firms targeting youth.
Where Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter hit gold, majority of Kenyan social sites are struggling, with only a few seeming to have working business models that generate revenue.
The failure to attract large user numbers online is pushing the local social media sites slowly out of operation as they fail to attract advertisement revenue despite the fact that most businesses have turned to social media advertising to capture the youthful market.
As of June, Facebook had one billion users while Twitter had 500 million users. This is a stark contrast to the 37,000 registered on top Kenyan social site, Kenyanlisting.
About 100,000 other users make up the nomenclature of a host of struggling forums and online dating sites like Wazua and Cloudromance that give a picture of Kenya’s online interactive landscape.
This has got companies like Safaricom, Jumia and Airtel opting to advertise on Facebook, Twitter and other multimedia platforms likeYouTube. Social media analyist Brenda Wambui believes increasing numbers and competitors hold the key to the survival of Kenyan sites.
“While some may be able to get a few thousand members, none of them has reached critical mass.This may be because of preference of users for mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube,” she says.
Despite support from the government, well-wishing citizens and investors, talented innovators entrepreneurs behind these sites are failing to raise the numbers.
Eunice Kariuki, the deputy executive of the Kenya ICT Board — which has been offering startup grants of between $10,000-$50,000 through a competitive business plan competition called Tandaa Content — attributes this downward trend to several factors.
Amongst them is fraud, irresponsible content, high cost of hosting technologies, cyber-crime, insufficient reliable and affordable connectivity power, online payment products and challenges in delivering goods due to lack of street addressing system. As a result, the board is pondering whether to continue with the funding.
However, Ms Kariuki reiterates that social media remains a force to reckon with in the near future.
“Social Media will be the platform of choice for businesses to enter new markets, offer more personalised services and products and build knowledge about their customer buying behaviour,” she says.
Going forward, Kenyan innovators remain hopeful of success in the online market. Julius Tago, co-founder of integrity.co.ke, in an interview with tech website HumanIPO, considers niche social media as the solution. He has plans to launch a new Kenyan social network for professionals later this year.
“We want a platform where people of professional integrity and ethics can interact. We will only admit trustworthy people,” says Mr Tago.
Firms such as Bharti Airtel and Nokia are among those targeting the socially active youth market in the region and have introduced free access to Facebook on Nokia’s Asha 501 phone.
According to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), there are more than 9.49 million Internet subscribers in Kenya. Mobile access continues to dominate, representing 99 per cent of the total subscriptions. The growth in mobile data consumption can largely be attributed to the popularity of social media.
This craze, particularly amongst the youth, is encouraging companies to enter strategic partnerships to offer attractive packages and incentives to consumers as they strive to stay ahead of the game.
Enormous opportunity
These consumers are already active on social media, especially Facebook, which continues to be the most popular social media channel in Kenya. It is estimated that Facebook in Kenya has more than 2.2million users, while Twitter has around 500,000 users.
“The growth of Facebook in East Africa continues to be significant, especially amongst the youth.
“As a company we see the enormous opportunity in the youth market and we are committed to providing innovative products and added value in this space,” Bruce Howe, Nokia general manager for East Africa, said.
