Hunger for information, marketing drives SMEs, customers to VConnect search engine
VConnect and its objective of establishing in Nigeria
We started VConnect over two years ago. I have seen what information can do for business, as it can help people discover themselves and business opportunities. Some people have lost their lives because they could not find the right hospitals to go to. There are at times people cannot reach the police because they don’t know numbers to call when there is robbery incident. We started by providing phone and addresses of emergency services like that of police station numbers, hospital, fire brigade and others. That was the primary idea why we started VConnect. If any person is in emergency situation, the person could log on and find numbers to call. We also have a call centre that operates 24 hours. VConnect is information about businesses, products and services and where you can get products near your house.
How do you upload this information on your search engine?
In Nigeria, one of the challenges we faced was that there was no organised data available already. We had to go to the field to gather the data, and that is why it is time consuming and more cost driven exercise.
Is availability of information to the public based on subscription?
For business registration it is free of cost, and that is why we have 700,000 businesses. That is a large database under one company. Also sourcing information is free.
Then how do you break even with free registration?
There are two different parts. The first part is uploading information for businesses. Businesses can come on our site and there is free registration link. You can provide us with the basic details, name of business, contact person, address, phone number. More than 1000 log on to our website everyday to provide these details. I won’t claim we are the most famous, but in the internet industry people know VConnect. We measure it because people come on their own to provide their business details with purpose of marketing their business information.
We make money through helping businesses such as SMEs to promote themselves and we have small packages ranging from N3,000 on how they can promote themselves and their services in their locality. The second aspect is through corporate advertising. There is a lot of advertising space which can be utilised by brands.
Do you have challenges on believability?
Most of the people in Nigeria have mobile numbers. So, if the business location change location or the contact person moves, the new phone number has to be updated. Keeping the information relevant always is a challenge. We have also found solution that is mind-boggling. We have to update this information on periodic basis so as to provide correct information. In the last few years, internet usage has taken a different shift in Nigeria. Three years ago some people had smart phones but not everyone was using data. Today people are abandoning SMS for BB messages and so on. Today people don’t want to call others for small information they want to take decision at a flash. Again if you find information about a restaurant on Google for instance and you don’t have images and video to support it, how do you know it is not buka or canteen? We have videos of businesses. You don’t need high videos but simple videos that people can see and say this is a good place to stay.
What is your investment profile?
This is a business that requires a lot of commitment in terms of all resources. Database and marketing. Change of habit takes time. People need to be aware of services like VConnect that is why we are investing in marketing.
Do you have a mechanism of measuring VConnect impact on businesses?
We have a dash board. Each business can request for its dash board to see how many times their Ad is viewed, how many times their page on our Website system has been clicked or viewed and how many times people have viewed their phone numbers on our Website. Because of our mechanism, you can track how many calls your business got. If you want to understand how to improve your business on VConnect, we have account manager you can reach. I strongly believe that businesses have got values through our systems and that is why more businesses are registering. We are recording over 2 million searches a month for different services. We have a return on investment mechanism for our businesses and we make sure they get at least three times of what they invested.
Will the registration and surfing remain free?
Always, it is my commitment to grow businesses and provide information to consumers who need them to make business contact.
Do you plan to introduce more apps?
We already have apps on Android and Blackberry and it is doing brilliantly. In three days it has 2,500 downloads without online promotions only word of mouth.
Why do you concentrate on SMEs in the promotion of businesses?
My understanding of Nigeria is that in every economy, SMEs are the engine of growth. Yes, Nigeria is oil dependent economy but SMEs are very crucial. If you make comparison, in Ghana for instance, the contribution of SME to GDP is about 55 percent, in Kenya it is 62 percent, in South Africa it is more than 70 , but in Nigeria it is less than 45 percent. But in Ghana, 70 percent of the population is employed in the SME, in Nigeria it is about 27 percent and I feel that Nigerians are the most enterprising people in the continent. Almost every body knows how to run a successful business. But there are tools that are required for SMEs to promote themselves; these are the tools we offer. We offer the dash board to market your marketing services and we are coming up with services that will actually make marketing a very convenient job for SMEs.
Are there security implications on your search engine services?
I don’t think there is security challenge as any customer can walk to any store and get the information. The information is at public domain and we don’t ask them about their tax details or net profits but information that helps them promotes their businesses. We are yet to work out modalities on co-operation with SMEDAN. We are interested in tying up with any group or company working towards the development of SMEs.
Which areas of co-operation with SMEDDAN are you targeting?
SMEDAN does a lot of research with SMEs and they have some very concentrated data about the businesses. Some of the people call us to say they want to start a new business, requesting for areas. There are areas where some businesses are not available. For instance, in some Abeokuta area there are places you cannot find an iPad, there are places there are no hotels or eatery close- by. We are more involved in SME development.
With 700,000 already registered on your network, that shows the volume of SMEs in Nigeria, what is next?
Volume of SMEs in Nigeria is huge. SMEDAN data say there are 17 million businesses. But VConnect has a restriction, we only register businesses with fixed structure not those under umbrella. When they change address they call us and if the owners of business don’t call, our field managers or customers will alert us and we subsequently change the address in the database. People are interested in promoting their business and marketing their business. There is hunger by people to promote their business.
What is your thinking that people need information, still there is apathy to providing the information
Initially, there was sense of threat. For instance, before the e-commerce came in, there was the fear of allowing cash on delivery. But today, almost everybody is doing cash on delivery without fear of attack. Things are actually opening up. Before end of this year, we hope to achieve a million businesses and next two years every fixed business in Nigeria will be on VConnect system.
Daniel Obi