Tomisin Fashino is the group CEO of Yookos.com, an Africa based social networking site. A computer engineering graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU and an MBA from the University of Lagos; Fashino started his carrier with JHK, a Lagos based computer company as a corper. His post NYSC saw him sojourn in the banking terrain as an IT professional across the EMEA. In 2011 he resigned to establish Yookos.com. Fashino spoke with peter ugwu on the company’s agenda. Excerpts.   

 Overview of Yookos.com

Yookos is an African social networking site. Yookos commenced on January 1, 2011; but only went commercial six month later in June. So, we are barely a year. We identified an opportunity to create a unique cosmological social networking platform that will bring our people together – those living in the African continent and others in Diaspora. A lot of times, we talk about social networking, and one will discover that some parts or continents of the world have developed networking infrastructure that promote their interests, values and ideas. For instance, Brazil, today has its special site, even China has two or three. So, we believe that there is an opportunity to have something that is uniquely African and that is the opportunity Yookos is ceasing.

Why Africa?

We also launched Yookos to enable us bridge a perennial digital divide that has plagued Africa and to bring Africa into the mainstream of global communications. How do I mean? In Africa today, there is about a billion people, out of this number, only about 140 million have access to the internet. That figure represents 14 percent. The global average is 32 per cent. It means that there is a significant digital divide that seats in Africa and remember that it is only 14 per cent now with the advent of mobile.

Before the advent of mobile telephone in Nigeria, only about a hundred thousand people had access to internet – that figure has risen to over 45 million. Then you can imagine that phenomenal growth in a period of 12 years, because the revolution started in year 2000. And the major driver is mobile telephony. So, we thought that to bridge the divide and even bring Africa to the global average, it means that we need about 250 million Africans to have access to the internet.

Can Africa afford 250m PCs?

I think that will be impossible now; not from our infrastructure and wealth. So, the generation of mobile phone is here. In essence, it is very possible to bridge the gap, but not on the traditional laptops. Africa is diversifying to mobile. For instance, we presently see more of iPads, Android, BlackBerry and other smartphones. Recently, I read an article on a business magazine that Nigeria is now the biggest market for BlackBerry world wide.

Yookos has identified that as a significant niche and we have launched our apps on IoS devices, that is iPads, iPhones, Android, tablets and of course, the BlackBerry. Launching our apps on these platforms make them available and make any Yookos user gain easy access to Yookos. These applications are available on Apple Stores – it is called Yookos mobile. It is part of our commitment to bridging the digital divide and to make the platform relevant to or growing user base, taking into cognizance that not everyone will get a whole of these on laptops.

For instance, while going for business trips, all I need is my iPad – the laptop is becoming increasingly no longer fashionable. With the advent of the smaller devices, you will discover that they can actually do virtually all that a laptop can do.  The smaller it becomes the more convenient and available it becomes.

Digital Divide

We got huge ambitions and currently have over seven million users across the world. We are been accessed from over 180 countries and territories and we will continue to grow. Like I earlier stated, we have a cosmological social networking, however we are not restricted to Africa. The site is open to everybody, although we are focusing our marketing strategy on Africa. We looked at it and said with all the hype about Facebook, how many users are from Nigeria, only 4.5 million; in a country of 160 million people. Africa as a whole, there are 40 million Facebook users, out of a global 900 million connections.

So, there is still a huge digital divide – Africa lags behind. And we are saying that we can do something uniquely African. If China, Brazil, Russia, and India can do it, we can do it as well.

Economic Value

Talking about the economic value is not about how we will make money with Yookos. Yes, it is a business and we know that we are going to make money, but before that you must invest, build a product and render services that people will be willing to buy or patronise. In the social networking business, what is most important is to ensure that there is relevance, the product capacity is there and acceptance in the market. More so, value addition, once we have these and people see reasons to interact and connect; view our content as acceptable that will go along way in making Yookos the peoples’ delight.

We are a private company. We have invested heavily to get to the stage we are now. We have developers still working in both U.S and South Africa to make sure the system meets global standards. It is challenging because if you are going to play in that field, you better be playing very right. We have advert banners on our web version, but not yet on the mobile apps version. The purpose is to add value to what African have to showcase to the world. And currently with seven million users, we are projecting to get up to 20 million users by the end of the year and if you ask me, we will have a hundred million by 2013.

Inculcating Moral Values

We are a value based organization, which means there are certain contents we do not permit, like pornographic pictures, foul languages, villains, threatening comments, among others. However, it does not fall under the purview of social networks to give you moral values. Moral values exist in the society. A social network can only enhance what exists in the society. And what does a social networking site enhances if not openness, transparency, communications that is free flow of information and ideas.

One of the things we must realize is that things that went wrong happened that way because there was no appropriate information or access to valuable information. But if I can go on social network and tell someone doing something the wrong way, the consciousness to embrace the right thing will be reactivated. While we were growing our parents thought us that things should be kept secret; the days that people can’t tell you where they live, but today, everything is virtually online; the openness of the social media makes everyone would want to belong there. And the more it becomes open, the more the moral rectitude of the country gets better.

Who regulates the internet? As a social platform, however, we self regulate to ensure comments, pictures that are not edifying or threatening are not given opportunities to make waves on the platform. In fact it is a combination of our self regulations and our user community that regulate what happens there. We have rules, so on signing up, one has automatically accepted to play the game according to the rules. The terms and conditions are not ambiguous; anyone who violates them, we reserve the right to investigate, although no body will be just shown the way out, but the right thing must be done.

Strategy and Expectations

We seek, in few years, to dominate Africa. We are getting to a point where if someone needs profile about any African, he or she should be able to find that on Yookos. We are getting to a point that Yookos becomes the tool for communication in Africa. We are building on other things like Yookos Literature, Yookos Education, Yookos Music, etc. We have already launched Yookos games. And we are making sure that the applications are relevant to the people. On the literature, there is something for everybody. Suffice it to say that we are going to compete well in Africa.

Selling Africa to Africans

We want everyone to embrace it as truly African. We are not just selling Africa to Africa, but we want Africans to appreciate the digital age; getting them to talk and see each other. For instance, Facebook is making impact in parts of the world is because they throw it open for apps to be written, we are doing the same. Interestingly, undergraduates in Africa will have better stories to tell, because we are taking the platform to universities in Africa. We have a lot of universities offering computer studies, but what are the chances that somebody in University of Abeokuta or a student in Malawi will write an app and get to Facebook. Such app will get to Yookos that is what makes it African. We don’t need hand outs and aides, rather opportunities.