FaceBook Attracting Many To The Web In Kenya

The Business Daily reports that there are more than 2 million Kenyans on Facebook. This is amazing considering that there are an estimated 3.5 million Internet users in Kenya. Ory Okolloh (aka Kenyanpundit) through Twitter observes that;

"@Kenyanpundit Also interesting, apparently when young people are buying phones today (used or new) 1st question is can it access FB, 2nd question is how?"

Alexa lists Facebook 4th on the list of 100 top sites in Kenya. Google lists Facebook as 3rd on the list of top search terms but 1st (login facebook) and 3rd (www.facebook.com) for top rising searches with 800% and 150% respectively in the last 12 months.

What does this mean for the traditional website? Should website owners and developers, who would otherwise be rejoicing with increased Internet use, be worried. I think not. After all isn't a Facebook profile a webpage. Facebook has done what web sites and blogs were unable to do, draw many more people to the web. This will result in the increased use of other websites.

Has Facebook attained critical mass in Kenya? It is definitely benefiting from positive network effect; becoming more useful as the number of users increase. Facebook is fueling the use of the web and changing the game.

Social media is powerful, even though the information there seems like lots of noise and clutter. Referrals for a product on Facebook is great PR, criticism and complaints disaster. It may too soon for traditional media (TV, print and radio) to start worrying about competing with Internet based media for Kenya Shillings. Especially since these traditional media firms are very active on Facebook and have websites too, but this will change in the coming years.

Facebook's disadvantage is that it is for the most part focused on the USA. Google Buzz can capitalize on ad revenue quicker because they have an interest and presence in Kenya, that is if there is an uptake in the use of Buzz. Do I hear people say no way? Please remember that Gmail arrived many years after Hotmail and Yahoo and upended these competitors. If Google Buzz offers users value add, if it can be customized to the Kenyan context, then do not rule it out. Users may defect and new users, the other 16 million mobile phone, users may decide to start with Google Buzz.

For now thank you Facebook!