I have always thought it would be interesting to know what the top websites in Africa by traffic are. The table below is my attempt at doing so. Compiled using data from Alexa, the websites listed represent the number one local site for each country. For instance, Nigeria’s number one local site is Nairaland, Ghana’s is Ghanaweb, Algeria’s is Echoroukonline and so on. Note that these countries were the only African countries that top website data was listed for on Alexa.com. Page views and ad estimates are based on Alexa data and were culled from the web traffic site, Cubestat. (*Please see caveat about Cubestat estimates in the ad revenue section)
Egypt leads…
Egyptian site, Myegy.com ranks number 1
Egypt’s Myegy.com ranks 480. Egypt has for some time been a trend setter in internet usage on the continent. For instance, Egypt currently leads other African countries in its number of Facebook users. As at the time of this writing, about 3.4 million Egyptians use the social networking site, Facebook.com according to Facebook estimates. South Africa comes in second with 2.8 million Facebook users.
News sites represent the most common high traffic sites
According to the list above, news websites by far represent the most common high traffic sites. Forums are also winners. Interestingly though, the number one site in Africa, Myegy.com is a media downloading site. It also beats the rest of the top site contenders by a wide margin. Should African internet entrepreneurs on the continent look more to media downloading as a possible business model for their web businesses? Probably. However, as we all know, the media downloading space comes with its multitude of baggage and risks as regards copyright among others.
Ad Revenue
*Caveat: From my experience using Cubestat/Alexa, its pageviews estimates typically overestimate page views numbers by about *2. As such, a website reported to have daily page views of about 2 million visitors likely has 1 million visitors in reality. Safe to say, it is off by about *2 for ad revenues estimates as well…
The Cubestat/Alexa estimates indicate that African web businesses can make substantial money online. However, to do so, one needs to rival at least Ringo.cm of Cameroon in traffic. This assures one revenue of at least $30,000 a year. (or $15,000 a year if the *2 bias is taken into account)
Based on the numbers above, quitting one’s full time job to run an African web startup might make sense financially only if one can attract about 69,000 daily page views like Ringo.cm (I am assuming that $15,000 – $30,000 a year is the minimum revenue range that makes sense for a young African entrepreneur who has just quit his or her full time job to run an online start up). However, very few African web businesses get up to 69,000 daily page views in web traffic. It is thus a tough world out there for African web start ups…
Alternatives
Wait it out
With the continent’s rising internet penetration rates, more and more Africans are likely to come online in the next decade. Increased internet usage will certainly bode well for young web start ups present today thus moving them to true profitability in the years to come. However, to reap the benefits, these start ups have to be around for the long haul, possibly having to deal with low revenue numbers for a few years. But the future is bright…
Pursue non (public) ad revenue sources (by public ads, I mean Google ads…)
Ad revenue is tricky and as shown above, requires traffic numbers of up to 69, 000 page views for one’s online business to make sense.
However, African web start up owners can pursue other revenue sources from other channels. In fact, web start ups looking to make decent earnings online as they wait on more favorable internet usage numbers should explore the following other options more aggressively in the interim.
- Premium from branding: Establishing a strong brand for one’s start up would go a long way towards distinguishing it and would help give it a premium for private advertisers and sponsors. With a strong online brand, sponsors would be willing to pay more to be associated with one’s web start up. This could help improve revenue numbers…
- Other income streams: African web owners can look to other income streams such as brand merchandising, job boards and affiliate services. Though some web start ups currently adopt these, most of them fundamentally pursue public ad revenue streams more aggressively. Realistically, for web start ups in the below 69,000page views range, real value will likely come from these other income streams until internet penetration numbers become more robust.
But how long would African web start ups need to wait things out? Are the alternatives above feasible means of generating revenue?? Thoughts?
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As usual, you have written in a methodological manner.
It is interesting to see such an overview. What I have noticed is that all the sites are restricted by geographical boundaries which is why the largest sites from these countries are not so large.
African Internet startups have to start positioning themselves globally if they really want to have any impact on the global stage.
@Oo, you are right. Geographic boundaries limit the traffic reach by putting an automatic "cap" on page views for web owners. We need more globally focused African founded sites…
Rightly said Oo, but the question now is, do African startups have enough funding, expertise to manage say, like 1 million unique visitors per day? I am a proponent of global competitiveness but we also need to understand that, now, our local content is still very low hence, the need for startups to build locally relevant startup while understanding that they are in a global market and as such they cant afford to remain a local player.
Think global, serve local is the mantra, take on the world, but serve them as if you are a local company! Thats the strategy of all this top firms.
@nmachi nice one, need to bookmark ur blog.
@Possicon, thanks a lot! Appreciate
African start-ups must think of the longterm, because the short terms opportunities are very negligeble
A few points of note concerning the current start-up culture in the continent
consumer trust in local start-ups is extremely low, which makes consumer adoption of local services that much harder. How can start-ups build consumer respect and trust
Another problem faced is that of marketing. The mainstream African media in African countrries does publicize start-ups but not to a level which breeds innovation. On the internet they are very few African content providers or news site which can help promote a start-up, so once a start-up goes public, they find it that there is no where to go.
So start-ups which figure out innovative ways to market themselves will probably carve out a niche
Lastly as you pointed out revenue models. The most common method of creating revenue is Google ads. This is not perfect since they are other ways yet not explored. Like you said premium ads are one example
Another example can be a subscription model,like monthly subscriptions.
Another is to directly sell either content or products, e.g go into e-Commerce a good example being Pesapal
Also how about money for virtual goods or virtual services, like e.g Facebook points
Another option is merchandise about your start-up e.g shirts, cups, toys
I personally think the African cyberspace is currently in web 1.0, and the main feature of web 1.0 is the dominance of news platforms. When web 2.0 does occur, the websites which will be ontop are the ones most innovative in marketing and monetizing their platform.
Cool article, some interesting points
@ Techmasai..Thanks! Agree with a lot of your points. What I am concerned about is the point you raised about consumer trust. Local startups need to work on this and it likely has to do with the quality of African interfaces. A more global outlook would likely help solve for this as our start ups will find that only top notch sites with original/intuitive features will be able to compete internationally. Nice one!
The most important stat in my view, is my bank account!
Keep up the good work.
@Oluniyi Lol. Thank you!
Wow! Iwas searching for info on the most visited african websites, and what an agreable surprise to find exactly that… from an AFRICAN WOMAN! I have nothing but respect for whoever launch their ownbusiness, and coming from a fellow continent person (I’m from the Ivory Coast) makes me feel proud of what can be accomplished by us.
All my good wishes to you and keep on this track Jidenma!
Hi Moses,
Glad you found the post useful. Also, thanks for the good wishes!
Excited the web is creating a new way for Africa’s young and enterprising people to channel their creative energies.
I believe this is only the beginning of more good news to come!
Nmachi