THE ERA OF THE DIGITAL BOOM
DECEMBER 2013
I came back to nigeria after 2 years studying computer engineering at the University of North Texas. I spent 2 years constantly online and got accustomed to streaming and browsing content from youtube, pandora, spotify and google. Only to get back to 500mb of data going for 1000 naira at the time and literally no digital presence in nigeria.
I saw this as an enormous opportunity
It was clear that internet would get cheaper and cheaper and more people would have access to it. I knew this to be a fact but at the time I didn't think about to capitalize on it.
Then covenant university happened.
After I came back, I was made to start again in Covenant university. we all know how that went :). While I was there though, I was surrounded by students that are mostly all entrepreneurial and digital driven and are amongst the brightest nigerians that couldn't escape the country or were brought back in my case :), mixed with all the rules the school has. The environment was a recipe for innovation and self expression through creativity. Seeing what some people were doing while in such a harsh environment, It sparked my inner fire as well. also shoutout to EDS
DECEMBER 2015
SENPAI was born, It started as a photography hobby but it quickly evolved into what it is now and is still evolving. The evolution was inspired by the fact I knew the digital boom was upon us.
THE ERA OF THE DIGITAL BOOM
It's 2017, and we are currently in it.
What I foresaw happening in 2013 has already started. We have seen the price of internet drop down significantly, despite the incident that happened last year when the NCC passed a policy to increase the data prices, Good thing the senate came in to stop that.
We have seen an increase in content consumption significantly and even iroko just announced that nigeria just recently became the biggest consumer of their content. All this is happening when we still pay a somewhat high amount for limited amounts of internet.
Then airtel announces their “almost” unlimited data price thus setting the field for the ultimate wars between major telcos. We should expect the others to adopt their very own “unlimited” plans too.
Those that saw this coming as well have already begun aggressively positioning themselves in the digital space, both home and abroad, even giant companies like google have started aggressively marketing their product and services here in nigeria, Mark zuckerberg came to lagos nigeria last year and the tech ecosystem in yaba lagos has declared and writing an open manifesto
What exactly does this mean for you?
- Well it simply means if you dont have have an active online presences or you are not planning to create one anytime soon. Your business, product, service or brand would become irrelevant right before your eyes.
- If you posses a digital skill ( development, digital marketing, design.. etc) you would experience exponential growth as more and more businesses would require such skills (which are not being taught properly in schools)
- If you are creative :) you will blow. The end.
Now we are all still very early in this and if you are reading this medium post in 2017 you are also very early, There is multi billion dollar market in the nigerian digital space you just have to ask yourself one simple question.
How can I position myself in this market?
If you would love to be part of a community of creative youth that are doing amazing things in the digital space click HERE to join our community :)
