They all planned, followed the pattern and yet they collapsed. Well they planned and failed. I wonder why? Maybe the problem was instead on the why theirs? it was the “i can do it if someone else has done it” just like you are saying by planning. Man we are not in the 80s. The business world we have now is something entirely different, whether it be online or in the normal world. Yet the future is still the question? How worse would the scenario get?

Well, for a start, I must say that Kayode was too pessimistic with his assertions. The scenerio today, or the future for that matter, is not as bleak as you want folks to believe.

It does not matter whether you are in Africa or not, whether you are imitating or not, what matters is your business model and how disciplined you are to follow basic business principles.

Bottomline is, you have to do this right, to get it right.
If I were a gold digger in 1848, I would use the best scientific methods available to search for gold, and not wild hypothesis. I would never take a step because others are taking it. I have to be convinced on why and how I should do it, study it properly, and then approach it in the best way possible.

There is no hiding the fact that running business via the WWW in Africa is tough indeed. First is Electricity. Nigeria for example, has the largest population in Africa, but is grossly underserviced with electricity. Computer hardware and software in expensive in Africa since they have to be imported mainly from outside Africa. Africa has the lowest Internet penetration in the world. Lowest literacy level. Consequently, if you are a web developer, who would you be selling to?

Well, I have said all there is to stay. It is not that bleak for Africa. There are success stories of ‘web entreprises’.

Failures of web entreprises elsewhere (Europe, Asia, America) are so many.

I, Ajao, believe there is a better future for Africa, and would not rest on my oars. I would do my best to leave an indellible mark in the sands of time.

So long…
Ajao

anyway keep on blogging big. i’m feeling your stuff that i just had to llink you on my blog. peace man!

You are right that I and Kayode have a personal dispute! I’ve called it off. My post was not croticising your post.

I stand by my statement that rushing online blindly is not such a bad thing. If you must fail, fail in an envoronment where your failure will not make you broke. Fail to try again.

You said, “Each time some netpreneur starts a portal that fails, whether he realises it or not his credibility is dented … Personally, I wouldn’t take him very serious.” In an environment where failure is not tolerated, there cannot be progress. You know the country with the highest dotcom failure rate? The US. Look how bad their economy is compared to ours! The same dotcom frenzy that led to the “dot bombs” is what got companies like Google funded in the first place.

People *will* go to a site that satisfies their needs whether or not the owner has failed before. Someone who has failed before is more likely to know what to do to get people the next time. And if you must fail, fail online. Fail in an environment where you can gain experience without going broke.

A lot of portals have given up hope of making money, but they are still there, still alive, still helping people and if tommorrow they figure out a way to make money I am more likely to buy from them. They haven’t ‘failed’ in my book. They’re hanging in there until they figure this new thing out. I like that.

I have responded to the write-up as a casual bystander, objectively and without prejudice. Leave me out of your private wars.

Now, having said that, back to issues. In my opinion, most Netpreneurs in Nigeria get into online businesses without acquiring the necessary knowledge needed to succed. As a network administrator, i know of “webmasters” on our service who do not know the difference between disk space and monthly bandwidth, those who do not know the difference between transfering a domain name and changing webhosts, and many more laughable matters.

The internet itself makes those pieces of information available free – and yet these “netpreneuers” do not know!! There can be no excuse for that. Seun said “The Internet is the cheapest place to make mistakes and learn from them”, and I agree, but some mistakes are not necessary – especially when the Internet itself has made the remedy available.

You also said that rushing online blindly is not such a terrible thing. I disagree. Each time some netpreneur starts a portal that fails, whether he realises it or not his credibility is dented. Chances that those who were aware of the first project will take him serious the next time get slimmer. Personally, i wouldn’t take him very serious. I know many others who would do the same as myself.

Unless there is some other info or data i am missing, I stand by my original response.

Your statistics infact is too far fetched. And besides maybe next time when you decide to attack peoples personality based on their opinions, you really need to get your facts straight. Really, as you said i have lost money in nigermarket? that is really funny. But then again what is the ratio of what i have lost compared to what i have gained generally?. And what is the relation of this to what i am talking about?

And besides come to think of it this is my Passion, this is what i do for fun if you may call it that, not my livelihood or where i dream to make millions from. This is what i do? so Seun i must say you are really being too reactive and emotional about the whole thing. I repeat again this posting has nothing to do with anybody. Its just and opinion and please treat it like one.

And besides remember to send me a link, when you decide to post in reply to this topic on you blog. I would love to read.have a nice day.

This blog entry does not deserve any amount of credit. I don’t know why the rest of you guys don’t see this. Maybe because you’ve not built ‘portals’ before. I’m going to have to do a sentence-by-sentence critique when I have the time. I just don’t have the time now.

Here’s the thing. Rushing online blindly is not such a terrible thing. Some of these “expensive web portals” you are talking about were built by students in their spare time; they may not have spent more than 6,000 naira on the projects. Kayode Muyibi alone wasted more money online than 10 average “portal” builders in Nigeria. Where is your nigermarket?

The Internet is the cheapest place to make mistakes and learn from them. How much does it cost to register a domain? I have enormous respect for Nigerian “portals” that are still trying to figure out how to make money (although I have every intention of pushing them out). How much does it cost to host a domain? Compare that to how much it costs for a market woman to rent a shop!

Many Nigerian web projects are simply underfunded. Nothing more, nothing less. I have a 24 hour Internet connection in my home (now). But there are people trying to run websites by buying night browsing at cyber-cafes! I am inclined to be proud of them, even though I consider them as competitors.

It is unfair of a rich Malaysian kid like Kayode to take a broad swipe at all of us in a public blog like this. I’m going to do a sentence-by-sentence refutation of this post in my blog very soon. I am right this time.

To start with, I run a web hosting company with at least 90% of our operations done online. in addition, I run a few more websites as a hobby.

Kazey has a point. For example I happen to have met some of these fly-by-night dot.com guys who are forever telling people that they can earn N750,000 in a month from the internet. While it is possible (but at great cost), it interests me to observe that NOT ONE of these guys preaching this “gospel” that I have met own a car to their name. Not one of them is financially stable.

In my opinion, rushing online blindly is a terrible thing. We have people setup portals on our servers and the nex year they do not renew – it was dead before it took off. My experience with a lot of people is that most online projects in Nigeria fail. I have a few articles on this issue at http://www.gosmartmobile.com if anyone cares to take a look.

Having said that, I definitely believe that we must redefine our values and change our attitudes to business if we will make anything substantial off the internet. It will take a lot of clear and smart thinking, plus those thoughts must be followed through with precision.