Kenya-based infotainment site Ghafla has unwrapped its first mobile app on Nokia. It has in addition introduced advertising services for Kenya’s business owners.
Ghafla’s founder Samuel Majani told HumanIPO the site is set to give business owners “value for their money.”
Even though Ghafla had received several inquiries from business owners who want to advertise wares on the site, Majani says he felt it was not yet time.
Majani hopes that as advertisers knock on their door, it is high time Ghafla expanded to the region and beyond.
It meanwhile intends to focus on the top five African entertainment hubs including Nigeria, SA, Ghana, and Uganda.
“We are working on our expansion plans, and the high Web and mobile Internet penetration countries are top on our list, this will equal to high readership as long as content is relevant therefore giving value for advertisers.”
Majani says Ghafla’s secret sauce is the team’s aggressive gathering of compelling news stories.
According to him, Ghafla is an inspirational voice for the local artists and players in the entertainment scene.
Majani said: “We support artists instead of speaking negatively about their concerts, albums or various projects, we are their voice and they come to us because they know we are objective.”
The Ghafla Nokia app can be downloaded from the Nokia Ovistore.
Majani in 2009 began Kenyanlyrics.com — then focused on selling digital downloads of Kenyan music. In 2011, Kenyalyrics rebranded to Ghafla and participated in IPO48 contest in Nairobi. Ghafla came second after Tusqee Systems and won 25 000 Euros investment from 88mph, a Kenyan seed investment firm that invests around Euro 20,000 to 50,000 in viable African startups. Other startups funded by 88mph include Futaa.com, Pesatalk.com, Six Degrees, Drugs.co.ke and MFarm.
Launched in September last year, Ghafla today has a full time five-member staff — three journalists, one developer and one salesperson. The team produces more than 40 entertainment news articles daily earning them more than 170,000 hits and 100,000 unique visitors monthly. Ghafla has a 78 percent growth rate according to Google analytics.
