Afrigator on aggregating in Africa

Thursday, 10 December 2009 09:55 Written by Tallulah Habib

Amatomu has all but gone under, but Afrigator is growing from strength to strength. In the past year they have seen approximately four times the amount of blogs signing up than in 2008 and average at 400 new blogs per month. MyDL journalist Tallulah Habib interviewed Stii Pretorius, Afrigator's lead developer.

How do you think Amatomu's fall will affect your company?

It doesn't at all because it has no bearing on our strategy. Amatomu used to be a good competitor which kept us on our toes. If anything, it has affected us negatively, although we've always had a different focus and strategy.

Do you find yourself competing with American aggregator, Technorati, or do you find your service caters for a niche?

We're a niche product. Technorati does not give much exposure to African bloggers, while Afrigator only focusses on African bloggers. It is very hard to get exposure amongst millions of other blogs worldwide.

Do you believe that it's necessary to have an aggregator that is based in Africa? If so, why?

Yes it's necessary. Africa only makes up 3% of global internet penetration, thus African bloggers are easily lost and ignored. We try to give the bloggers a voice.

Do you think there is space for other African aggregators?

Yes, possibly. We co-existed well when Amatomu (which was a South African specific aggregator) was at its peak. We competed at some level, yet we shared and helped each other in some or other sense. Bloggers are very social. They like to interact with other bloggers. Some like to interact with like minded bloggers or bloggers with the same niche or interests as themselves, while most like to interact with bloggers in the same geographical location as themselves.

Why do you think that Afrigator continues to be successful?

We're passionate about our product and we will continue to try and be innovative. We try to interact with our users as much as possible. We're also not scared of trying new things and experimentation, even though failure is often imminent. We're quite comfortable with failure. That is how we learn valuable lessons!

What put Afrigator ahead of other aggregators like Amatomu?

We try to be innovative and at the same time make Afrigator a sustainable product. Aggregation can be fairly resource intensive which requires a fair amount of money to keep going. If you do not have any plans to monetize the product it could potentially be a costly exercise. It is nice to always focus on the cool things, but if you're not going to maintain a balance between cool features and necessary features that could cover the infrastructure costs, it could prove fatal for your product.

How does Afrigator see the future of blogging in Africa and South Africa?

Africa is just beginning to realize the potential of blogging! We're almost at a tipping point and we hope that improved bandwidth would help. We've seen big increases in the number of blogs from countries like Kenya and Nigeria.

As for South Africa, it will get more serious. We've got a number of bloggers that make good money from blogging. It will become a source of income for more people in future. Businesses will also apply it in creative ways to promote their products and services. It is an educational process, but one that is bound to happen.

Comments (0) Add Comment