I recently spoke to Nnamdi who happens to run Nigeria Property Centre (NPC). Of course, we spoke about the recently ‘hot’ property scene and I wanted to find out if NPC is indeed the no.1 property site in Nigeria…
why do Nigerians tech scene like words like number 1,the largest,the biggest,the smartest, and etc
seriously speaking most property sites in nigeria are alike and similar, they copy and paste their competitors inventories
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Me too. Not sure you’ve had time to one read the article…but here you go:
Also, in respect to most sites copying ‘competitors inventories’ like you mentioned, have you considered that landlords place their properties on numerous sites themselves? In other words, similarities in inventory is definitely a feature and not a bug, of the property industry. (Similar to a retailer listing the same goods on Konga, Jumia, etc).
Of course, in the long-run, there’s bound to be a ‘winner’ effect where a site consistently comes up on search results eventually agents prefer that site, and tenants/buyers always seem to meet their needs on that site. (And this a a completely separate point which I think NPC is aiming for).
How do I know this? Because that’s the exact behaviour that I’ve also exhibited - as a customer of similar sites. In the past, I’ve placed my property on Zoopla, Rightmove, Gumtree, and even local estate agent websites, to ensure I’m able to rent it out. Does it mean they’re busy copying each other’s inventories in my case?
how do you call your self Number 1? when most data are not public.i guess it is not right to call yourself number 1 when you dont know your competitor numbers.
Sometimes they do copy each other or do some unethical stuff,it is very common in that industry
there was a case in kenya in which jumia house kenya copied www.buyrentkenya.com database word for word.anyway it was news and i dont know how it was solved.
First, biggest, fastest growing… I have tire!
Well, I’m sure there are unscrupulous players everywhere. So not entirely surprising that some firms engage in shady practices.
In terms of number 1 , I personally think the term is over used, however, you can always use proxy metrics and not necessarily have to get all competitors data to determine who’s the leader. In this case, you use the same methods (which I did), to come to the same conclusion.
To make matters worse, some companies ( in conjunction with bloggers/journalist ) are now becoming more creative with claims ( I recently read a company with ‘65% market share’ ! ).
how do you call your self Number 1? when most data are not public.i guess it is not right to call yourself number 1 when you dont know your competitor numbers.
The real metrics that determine the true leader in our industry (like number of leads generated) is not public information. However some publicly available data can be used to work out how property websites are performing. Here are some stats from Nigeria Property Centre (NPC) and our closest competitor (Tolet).
Property Listings
Listings added this year (NPC) - approx. 76,226
Listings added this year (Tolet) - approx 57,889
Note: The number of listings has been derived from the property IDs of listings added from Jan 1, 2017 to date.
Traffic
_Source: https://www.similarweb.com/website/nigeriapropertycentre.com?competitors=tolet.com.ng_
Note: Similar web data is not 100% accurate, however it is now pretty close to data from Google Analytics.
Alexa.com says otherwise
one of the unscrupulous things i have seen is duplication of inventories on properties sites.
lot of lies in these our eco system,back in 2016 tolet claimed to have facilitated about 8 million dollars in transaction but in real life their books was showing something else.
I dont know if it was a miscommunication between journalist and the company but seriously speaking journalist in our ecosyatem need to verify claims before posting sensational headlines for clicks.
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Data from Alexa is not remotely accurate.
Here’s a document from the Tolet investors reporting their month traffic as 257k as at June 2017. I would say that’s pretty close to the value in the similar web report (200k).
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i see but anyway both alexa and similarweb wont give you an accurate figure.
from the document you uploaded, google analytics was used to give the number of sessions for june 2017 for both tolet and jumia house(it seems june 2017 was the highest monthly session for both companies),will it not be fair if you released your own session from google analytics for that same month?
in between the document also stated that with the present acquisition of jumia asset by tolet.Tolet will occupy the number 1 position in property listing sites in Nigeria
.
Our traffic figure as at June is almost as high as Tolet and Jumia combined.
Yes, the document says it will make Tolet occupy the #1 position however people that search for property tend to search all three websites (NPC included). So it’s not just a simple case of adding the traffic figures for both portals. If you discount duplicate visits across both websites (i.e. Tolet and Jumia) then Tolet might not be #1 after both sites are merged. Time will tell I suppose.
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that is nice.thanks for uploading.i am impressed,the market is small at the moment but as many young nigerians with spending power come into the internet,i think the future will be bright for you and for other real startups).
Thanks for sharing your stats, but I honestly have one question.
Does adding “the largest” or “the biggest” or “no1” etc to the company narrative have any effect on the bottom line? Because as mentioned above, every Startup in Nigeria is the biggest or largest or no1. Someone went as far as titling a post on Radar about his company “Africa’s fastest growing startup?” today. We don’t know which one is hype and which one might be true anymore.
This is the TRUTH we often shy away from. Unfortunately throwing more money at it does NOT bring more ROI. Maybe that’s the message we need to sound with a megaphone so we can all “get it” and adjust to that reality.
We are in a moment of Truth.
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It has absolutely no effect on the bottom line. However, in the context of the article (bootstrapping), it was relevant to mention it. Apart from that, we don’t really care much about it. We just do us and focus on adding value.
Adding value sells itself.
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I share the same view.
What's the true no. of internet users in Nigeria? NCC say 91 million but potential target audience on Facebook across Nigeria = 18 million
— Nnamdi Chineme (@nchineme) October 26, 2017
Facebook is not a perfect proxy for determining the exact number of people in Nigeria that use online services, but it gets me thinking.
While Facebook is not a perfect proxy, I’d rely more on its data than NCC’s data, seeing as every young Nigerian with a phone that can run Opera Mini will access Facebook first before any other website.
So to get a good estimation of Nigerians who own a smartphone or computer that can actually access our numerous internet services and run the softwares, I’d take a couple million off Facebook figures. That way, I won’t have an overbloated target market figures.
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The problem we have here in Nigeria about using technology is cultural,lack of trust and fear,We need to change the mentality of people.
Smartphones are still a luxury in Nigeria,how many 15-21 years old have a smartphone,most still depend on their parent for needs,so it becomes very difficult for them to afford a smart phone except they are gifted by family friends or friends, that is why product targeting hardly works in tech business in Nigeria,at the moment,you cant target a specific age group of people because the target group do not have a smart phone or laptop.
Also there this mentality among older Nigerians that using a smart phone or a laptop means you are either doing crime or watching porn,i have been a victim of that,not from my parent but from a church member.the pressure was so much but i was stubborn enough to do my thing.in their mentality laptop/smartphone are evil and devil box.
Thank god,many of us were born in this age,our children will also use smartphones or any other advanced tech that becomes commercialize,i just hope,we have the spending power because every hype about how we have a large market will be a joke,if our present young and future generation do not have a good spending power.
High population doesnt mean large spending power or large market. online
Also many young people dont work so how do we expect them to spend
Everything depends on the economy,the more the economy grows,the more spending power Nigerians have both offline and online.
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