SEUN OSEWA VS LINDA IKEJI: BETWEEN NIGERIA’S KING AND QUEEN OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA

AbdulKabir Olatunji

AbdulKabir, a business management expert and internet strategist, is the Head of Operations and Strategy at JarusHub, Nigeria’s most authoritative career resources platform

5 Things that Differentiate Linda Ikeji from Nairaland’s Seun Osewa

Away from the usual ‘Happy New Month’ messages that one gets at the beginning of every month on social media,  something very interesting caught the attention of this writer and millions of Nigerians on the Internet on November 1. It was the launch of a new social network not by Google, Facebook,  Apple or Amazon but by a certain Linda Ikeji. Does the name ring a bell?

Nigeria’s Queen of Ofofo (Gossip) showed us the guts that quite frankly most of us have not shown in any business activity we might be engaged in. However,  despite her undoubted popularity (or is it notoriety?), she does not have the satisfaction of owning the most visited Nigerian website in the world,  this position is held by Nairaland.com’s owner,  Seun Osewa.

Over the years,  many people have done comparisons between the 2 especially on the question of who between them makes more money from their online platforms. Opinions are split but there is a strong suspicion by many that Linda Ikeji is the top earner from online activity in Nigeria.

So,  what are the qualities that differentiate Linda Ikeji from Seun Osewa that have earned her such a strong position and following in Nigeria’s Internet Space?

1. Visibility

Linda thrives on her celebrity status and happily dives into controversy even if she often gets embarrassed in the process. There have been many fights and feuds with other celebrities including artists like Wizkid, former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and other bloggers. Seun is the direct opposite of this,  he is notoriously reclusive and avoids the public eye seeking to keep himself immune from the hassles of being a celebrity and in large part succeeding. However,  this comes at a cost,  Nairaland is not really fulfilling its growth and commercial potential partly because of this.

2. Blogger vs. Programmer

I doubt if Linda can write a single line of code but Seun can probably rewrite this article in Python and 10 other programming languages. This affects how they both see and promote their platforms. Seun is more focused on having a consistently reliable website that works and satisfies the need to read news,  share information and probably insult the heck out of others that Nairalanders seem to have while Linda is determined to be the source of all the happening gist and gossip in town through her blog and now social network. It is a little bit of a battle between gossip (LIB) and information spiced with insults (Nairaland). Both platforms have over the years served the needs of many Nigerians on the Internet with a lot of us addicted to one or the other at least.

3. Risk-taker vs. Conservative Businessman

Make no mistake about it,  Linda and Seun are worth a few million dollars each at the very least. Linda has over the years turned her blog into a marketing Mecca of sorts,  some of the biggest brands and politicians have paid millions of naira to either takeover the background of her blog or maintained other major adverts on it. She keeps finding new ways to expand her advertising revenue potential venturing into music downloads with MTN and other forms of endorsements. Seun tends to avoid these kinds of engagement like the plague and usually insists that advertisers use only Nairaland’s advert boxes if they must promote themselves on his platform. Other forms of paid advertising and marketing are usually rebuffed except for very few exceptions. He seems to believe this helps him keep his independence from corporate and political interests and potential backlashes from being associated with them.

4. Openness to New Ideas

Seun has this ‘I know better’ attitude that makes it difficult for people to convince him to accept new ideas no matter how good they are. In summary,  he is usually like: ‘If you knew better, you would have something better than Nairaland’. Most of the major changes on Nairaland over the years have been initiated by Seun notably moving away from the SMF forum platform to the current customized platform. Linda on the other hand is quick to take-on new ideas and does have a close group of associates she consults with. She could not achieve a tenth of what she has achieved so far without this quality. She simply lacks the technical skill to push such innovation,  the latest of which is Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) her blog meets social network meets classified ads platform.

5. Extrovert vs. Introvert

Ultimately,  this seems to be what differentiates these 2 leading Internet entrepreneurs in Nigeria,  Linda exhibits all the classical attributes of an extrovert: in-your-face,  confident and fearless. Seun exhibits the classic traits of an Introvert: reclusive,  withdrawn and self-driven. Anybody expecting both to change anytime soon might as well go in search of needle in a haystack. You probably have a better chance of finding that first.

Linda Ikeji and Seun Osewa have a few similarities though,  they have both had their online platforms shutdown due to different cyber attacks with Nairaland hit by hackers and LIB removed by Google for some time after some people launched complaints about it. Perhaps,  the most important common denominator for this duo is that they are both immensely successful and living the dreams of millions of us which is to be a successful Internet entrepreneur. For this they deserve much credit and recognition.

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