• Losses to economy rise to N152b as SMEs migrate to other platforms • They are talking, says source
• Experts want investment in local messaging app • Koo targets Q4 for Nigerian registration, ready to pay taxes
• CSO condemns Koo for using Buhari to advertise app
There appears to be no truce yet between the Federal Government and management of popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter, over the latter’s ban in Nigeria. The ban enters its second month today.
The Federal Government had announced the suspension of Twitter operations in the country on June 4, after the social media giant deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari for “violation of the company’s abusive behaviour policy.”
By June 5, the suspension was effected by telecommunications companies as Nigerians woke up to a Twitter shutdown across all platforms.
This sparked serious row between the two entities, and impacted businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprises that continue to lose billions of naira daily to the suspension.
Three weeks after, on June 22, the President set up a committee consisting of five ministers to negotiate with Twitter. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was appointed as head of the committee, which included Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN); Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
With dark cloud surrounding the planned meeting as there has not been any form of communication to the public from either side, there is anxiety in the country that six weeks after the announced composition of a government delegation, there might be no meeting that would lead to a possible truce after all.
But a presidency source in one of the ministries told The Guardian, yesterday, that the two sides are talking. “I can authoritatively inform you that right now, the two sides are communicating. It is not as quiet as you imagine. Of course, it might be off the radar for now, but they are in touch. As soon as they want anything in public, people will hear.”
However, response from Twitter on the matter was yet to come as at press time.
MEANWHILE, as the public awaits a possible truce, losses to the Nigerian economy continue to soar. In an earlier news report of July 15, The Guardian, relying on digital report 2021 by Hootsuite, a social media and marketing dashboard, had established that there were fewer users of Twitter in the country as against the purported huge number, which were being targeted by FG for possible tax earnings.
Hootsuite informed that Twitter’s potential advertising audience compared to the total population aged 13 plus in Nigeria is 2.4 per cent, while quarter-on-quarter change in Twitter’s advertising reach is 17.3 per cent. The implication of this is that Twitter’s penetration in the country is still very low compared to other platforms. Analytically, it means that it is unlikely these 3.05 million-advert audience would be impacted by the American company.
Against this backdrop, checks by The Guardian showed that within the last 61 days of the ban, accruable losses to the Nigerian economy is in excess of N152.5 billion.
NetBlocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and governance of the Internet, said each hour of the suspension costs Nigeria $250,000 (N102.5 million), bringing the daily loss to N2.46 billion. Invariably, it means the economy would have lost over N152.5 billion in the last two months.
Despite its ban in Nigeria, Twitter’s second quarter report, showed improved performance. In its released earnings report for the second quarter (Q2), Twitter declared total revenue of $1.19 billion.
Compared to the $683 million that was posted in Q2 2020, Twitter’s revenue grew by 74 per cent, showing a remarkable bounce back from the harsh economic effects of the COVID-19.
The United States remains its strongest market with a 79 per cent increase in revenue year-on-year to $653 million. Japan is still its second-largest market and it grew by 40 per cent in the quarter. The revenue from Japan amounts to $151 million, which is 13 per cent of the entire revenue for the quarter. In the third quarter (Q3), the company expects to see revenue of $1.22 billion to $1.30 billion. This is more than the $1.17 billion that analysts are predicting, according to Refinitiv.
WHILE the losses to SME operators and users in Nigeria continue to soar, India’s rival micro-blogging app, Koo, on Tuesday disclosed plans to formally register in Nigeria.
The app became popular in June when the FG suspended Twitter operations in the country and embraced Koo, signing up on the platform and encouraging Nigerians, public and private institutions to join in.
Koo’s popularity subsequently surged as the official Federal Government social media platforms stopped tweeting and migrated to Koo. Top government functionaries, presidential aides, agencies, and other pro-government individuals also took to Koo.
During a virtual interaction with journalists, on Tuesday, the Business Development Consultant to Koo, Sameer Yeshwanth, said they believe the social media platform would be the first to be registered in Nigeria formally. Yeshwanth said, by registering, Koo would pay taxes as required and comply with all the laws of the land. He noted: “We have already hired four staff according to the Federal Character Laws of Nigeria.
The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna, said the innovation that brought Koo was borne out of the need to ensure freedom of expression across board. He said the product would be customised to meet needs, as people can easily get connected to their respective languages.
Radhakrishna disclosed that Nigeria is the first country outside India that Koo has moved to and, in the last two months, has seen about 200,000 downloads.
The CEO said the firm is doing everything possible to give Nigeria and Nigerians the best of service. According to him, “We hope to register by next quarter. We are moving steadily on how to go about our international operations. What we are doing now is to get all that we need ready, then full operations begin.”
He explained that part of the service is to ensure that local Nigerian languages including Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, pidgin, Tiv, Fulfulde and others with large populations feature on the platform.
In furtherance of its newfound affinity with the country, Koo recently featured President Buhari on its social media advert page for Nigeria. In what appears to be the President becoming a special brand ambassador to the medium, Koo placed Buhari’s image on its social media advert with the app promising to provide “exclusive updates from him only on Koo App.”
Within days of the Twitter ban, Koo was available on Apple and Google’s app stores and job openings were posted on LinkedIn searching for local language speakers.
The advertorial of Buhari as the face of Koo in Nigeria was condemned by civil society organisation, Center for Democracy and Development (CDD).
“It’s a shame the #TwitterBan has persisted till now, despite the economic disaster it has proven to be for youths who depend on #Twitter for their livelihoods. For obvious reasons, we find this ad by #Koo, another microblogging platform, both immoral and distasteful,” CDD tweeted on Sunday.
The advertorial of Buhari as the face of Koo in Nigeria was condemned by civil society organisation, Center for Democracy and Development (CDD).
“It’s a shame the #TwitterBan has persisted till now, despite the economic disaster it has proven to be for youths who depend on #Twitter for their livelihoods. For obvious reasons, we find this ad by #Koo, another microblogging platform, both immoral and distasteful,” CDD tweeted on Sunday.
