Fhemmmy:

The fact remains they are doing business and again, if the Nigerian online business and constantly doing things right, i am sure that Nigerians will not be approaching the giants of the net to come and help.
Also, our govt have a watch dog to make sure all activities are fair and ethical, so if they are not talking, who do we blame.
Nairaland is a sample of a great forum, but is all fair to everyone when you rub shoulder with the "moderator"? I dont see Nairaland being affected, cos the dude is doing a good job, constantly looking for how to improve

Let us be real, Nigerians wants good stuff and wanna see some changes, and if it takes the coys like google, so what do we do?

BizNews:

How Google Is Killing Nigerian Online Businesses - Nairalist, Tradestable

There is no pressing issue today in the Nigeria’s online business than the entrance of the behemoth called Google. Google’s entrance has send shivers down the spine of Nigeria online businesses and seen them frantically grabbing what hitherto was Nigeria’s domain. Google is innovating by killing local businesses.

Mashable recent post has this about Google earnings, ‘…the search giant’s third quarter, they reported $5.7 billion revenue, up 7% from the same time last year. The company generated $2.54 billion in free cash flow during the quarter, bringing the company’s total cash on hand to a staggering $22 billion’.

Google came into the Nigeria’s market with a war chest of over $22bn and ferocious assemblage of the smartest to conquer the Nigeria market. It seems to have achieved that. The past few weeks has seen Google with its war chest and network of associates and strategic linkages pushing hard to take Nigeria’s businesses online whether they want it now or not. Even with a free web portal that didn’t factor in services firms but basically meant for product sales. It has taken on tradestable , nairalist and dealfish through Google Trader is just ubiquitous on the internet.

As a result, the Nigeria web designers are going jobless and what seemed an opportunity has suddenly turned into a nightmare. These web designers in the past decade stumbled on the internet; they joined the platforms and started a self-learning process that saw them becoming useful in providing I.T services which in the past weren’t in existence. They could have been cybercriminals, cyber-bullies, ‘yahoo-boys’ and thieves and others but the choose the right path.

http://businessnews.com.ng/2011/12/08/google-an-unfair-competition-and-killing-of-local-web-business/

occam:

Can you provide facts to support your assertions; maybe it will make sense. Not sure why Google will want to kill local businesses, according to you.

Google's main business is Search and this is one attempt to ensure more businesses and consumers are using the web. Nigeria provides a unique opportunity for online business to thrive - very young demographic and huge population. Also online usage continues to grow every year. Makes sense for Google or other business to have a presence in this huge market.  

In terms of impact on Nigerian web designers; well the web is rapidly evolving and people need to adapt. Right now, any small business owner can set up a web presence for less than $150 without a web designer. You can build your own website in couple of hours and start promoting your business. So web designers should think about doing web marketing and strategic planning or focus on contract work with big corporations. There's huge career/business opportunities in the digital and online space than simply designing websites.  

Overall, this Google move can be a huge benefit for small business owners if people see the bigger picture. In fact, any small business owner without a website is Leaving money on the table for competitors.

maclatunji:

You guys are not entirely correct. Facebook is the No.1 website in Nigeria and Google is just making sure that it kills Facebook's expansion in Nigeria by taking over almost every part of our "loca Nigerian Internet." They are doing the job really well at the moment. No problem, we will just jump on the Google bus and see how we can become the driver instead of hapless passengers.

occam:

Can you provide facts to support your assertions; maybe it will make sense. Not sure why Google will want to kill local businesses, according to you.

Google's main business is Search and this is one attempt to ensure more businesses and consumers are using the web. Nigeria provides a unique opportunity for online business to thrive - very young demographic and huge population. Also online usage continues to grow every year. Makes sense for Google or other business to have a presence in this huge market.  

In terms of impact on Nigerian web designers; well the web is rapidly evolving and people need to adapt. Right now, any small business owner can set up a web presence for less than $150 without a web designer. You can build your own website in couple of hours and start promoting your business. So web designers should think about doing web marketing and strategic planning or focus on contract work with big corporations. There's huge career/business opportunities in the digital and online space than simply designing websites.  

Overall, this Google move can be a huge benefit for small business owners if people see the bigger picture. In fact, any small business owner without a website is Leaving money on the table for competitors.

Hodaya:


With 'Google trader', Nairalist is on the back foot.
Wait till we get 'Google forum' then Nairaland might struggle.

Countries over the world do well to support and protect their local businesses, not import competitors for a technology that can be achieved locally. It might not be perfect at the beginning but with constant growth things will get better.

Hodaya:


Hmmm, now that nairalist.com has been affected, it is only a matter of time before nairaland.com is. Don't be surprised when you see Google launches a forum that will rival & might crush nairaland. We must not wait for this to happen before we wake up.

Hmmm, now that nairalist.com has been affected, it is only a matter of time before nairaland.com is. Don't be surprised when you see Google launches a forum that will rival & might crush nairaland. We must not wait for this to happen before we wake up.

Fhemmmy:

I dont think it is fair to blame google for the death of any site, let us look inward and we will see the reason why some of the sites are dying.
Most sites like the one that was mentioned earlier, what is the total expenses per month compared to the total income . . .  most of the sites started with experiment and once they started making like 3000$$ a month, they get tired of looking for better way to make it better, and just settle for the money they making from Google Adsense . . . .

If Nairaland allow Nairaland to be a thing of the past, they, you will blame no one but the owner of Nairaland . . . .

By the way, if you think of how some things are happening, you would wanna be on a safe sife with some things . . . .constant improvement is the key and always looking for ways to make your business better

In China, Google had issues simply because the Chinese government realized the dominance of google will make it impossible for her citizens(local businesses) to compete.

The bulk of their(Google) profit heads back to the US meaning we are literally contributing to the growth of their economy and killing ours. How do you guys expect DealDey, Tradestable or Nairalist to compete with Google trader. It is just impossible and this is the point where the government of Nigeria should interfere. We need our local businesses to grow first at home and then grow fast enough to export their products and services to other countries.

So for you guys saying Google isn't killing our web industry, y'all are a joke and need to wake up fast.

The most popular website in China is Baidu.com(a serch engine), google is fifth and Facebook isn't even in top 100. It is high time we woke and face reality, we stand lots more to loose if the Nigerian government doesn't interfere to rescue our local ecommerce businesses. Why must a local Nigerian business rely on Google(an American company) to market/advertise in Nigeria to Nigerians? Something isn't right, a Nigerian business should dominate that market. Do you guys ever think a Nigerian company can dominate any industry in the US even if it has the capacity? Shameful!

1stCitizen:

The problem is Nigerians are not as innovative as our counterparts in even some African countries. We just like to copy. Then sit down happy with the meagre adsense income we get.

occam:


Online advertising portals like Nairalist and Google Trader are sustained by huge budgets. You need to put money in online ads, email etc to drive people to the site and make sure they return. So I can see why Google with it's cash flow can compete effectively in this space.

Online forums on the other hand are audience driven. Once people love the forum they always return. So Nairaland with over 800K users, generating thousands of discussion threads should be ok. Besides, the threat of competition should keep Nailraland on it's toes and drive innovation. Good news I believe for users like you and I.

What exactly do you think Nigerian govt can do to protect Online businesses? I say nada

moderatorr:

google is here to plunder.
But just as google plus will fail , almost all there products will fail.
Gnbo is number 1.
Because clients now know that a free domain is an insult.
But will google trader fail? Me nah think so.
For your information google is challenging nigerian news papers ! Check news.google.com.ng . Its just unbelievable what those slave masters believe.
They cant invent anything, because they dont fully understand the nigerian market, and they cant make naija webmaster their manager. All they can do is copy working nigerian models and try to stamp out the original inventors, then introduce google adwords, adsense bla bla bla .

sovpounds:

Google aint killing no Nigerian online business. Please leave Google to operate in peace.

We Naijarians should be innovative and creative and we would set up businesses that would give Google a headache. Remember Google is successful but it has failed in certain businesses it has tried, this is because those in those businesses fought back by innovation and creativity.