Linda Ikeji talks about her social network and her future plans

Love her or not, she's one of Africa's most famous news and gossip writers. Now she's hoping to take on Facebook with her very own social network, which she says hit 50,000 sign-ups on the first day.


Linda Ikeji, a former model from Lagos, Nigeria, says her social network, LIS (Linda Ikeji Social) has something others lack: a one-stop shop for everything online.

Just six days in, the network has 86,000 followers. Within the next five years, Ikeji said she hopes to be the new Facebook.

See excerpts below.

On the need for her platform: About 30-40 million Nigerians are now online, and they go through so many sites. They go to Facebook for connecting with friends. They come to my blog to read the news. They buy and sell things and go to places like Nairaland where they exchange opinions.

On the growth: Facebook is my competition.

On how the monetization works: Once they have 50,000 followers on their page, we will automatically start monetizing it. That means we will put our client’s banners on the page and pay you a commission from what they pay us. Being on social networking sites make the (site) owners billionaires. You being on our site will make us money, but at the same time we will share some of that money with you.

On her critics: There are people who are jealous, because they don’t understand how somebody can be so successful at something so many others are trying to do. They may not agree with the way I do stuff. They will criticize and show their opinion, which is fine with me.

Click here for the full interview

(Source: CNN)