By Olufemi Omotayo - Founder and Managing Editor, EntrepreNews
The Oriental Hotel in Lagos recently played host to the 7th annual Nigeria Com, bringing together stakeholders in the telecoms and ICT sector to create discussion on deal flow around the nation’s digital future.
For two days, experts shared market insights on creating a better environment for tech SMEs and startups to develop; case studies of public private collaborations in m-Health; focused sessions on digital entertainment and matching content with the data gap.
For starters, did you know that the instant messaging market is currently witnessing another disruption besides WhatsApp?
CEO of Jongla, Riku Salminen, wowed the audience with statistics of how are capturing market share in Africa, using Nigeria as a key entry point.
Perhaps even more stunning is his announcement that Jongla has localised its offering to the Nigerian people, making it possible to communicate in the three major languages of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
NigeriaCom plenary panel: Enhancing content integration to bridge the digital revenue gap – the rise of data driven services through smart devices
The key statistics from their survey so far reveal that news and information are top needs of Nigerians, followed by social networking.
Emeka Akano, the CEO of Jara Mobile corroborated this.
When asked about the kind of contents Nigerians love; he listed music videos, comedy, football, tech reviews, fashion, and gaming. But entrepreneurs must also find how to make these user-generated as it would accelerate their growth.
For Michael Ugwu, the GM West Africa of Sony Music, the question was whether Nigerians buy music? Surprisingly, he confirmed that their experience has been great since they launch last year and the Nigerian market is the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
And, what is the secret of Goal.com? Daniel Price, Mobile Distribution Director, Perform Group says the secret is to keep innovating and changing things where necessary. He also advises that adding local flavour and voice is important.
Finally, he tells Nigerian entrepreneurs: “Don’t be afraid to fail.”
This report was originally published on EntrepreNews.
About the author:
Olufemi Omotayo is a social entrepreneur and multiple award-winning journalist/blogger with expertise in technology and entrepreneurship writing. He is the founder and managing editor of EntrepreNEWS, Nigeria’s foremost entrepreneurship medium. He is a seasoned speaker, mentor, facilitator and coordinator for many youth initiatives in Nigeria.
