Posted on May 11, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
Afrigator tried to buy Twitter, we launched Gatorpeeps instead
The news is finally out that Afrigator has officially launched Gatorpeeps. Gatorpeeps is our very own micro-blogging platform that we hope will connect our vastly growing community of users.
One of the biggest problems we’ve had is that we sit with more than 12,000 users but we’ve had no way to connect these users together. We’ve had numerous requests to allow peeps to connect with other like-minded African users and for a long time we’ve been trying to figure out the right way to do it.
When we sat down to work the model out Stii had this ingenious idea to buy Twitter so, we made them an offer. Unfortunately our offer of R250,000 was rejected and the result is that we decided to build our own platform instead.
At first glance Gatorpeeps may appear to be competing with Twitter but let me assure you we’re certainly not trying to compete or steal Twitter users but rather leverage off the technology to enhance our existing product.
In truth we modeled a lot of Gatorpeeps off the best that both Twitter and Jaiku had to offer. Twitter has certainly brought micro-blogging to the mainstream and Jaiku revolutionised community interaction and we wanted to bring the simplicity of both into our offering.
So the question then is if we have such amazing micro-blogging platforms already why would we need another? Well, in a review of ten micro-blogging platforms ReadWriteWeb had this to say in their conclusion:
Micro-blogging isn’t a short-term trend – it is here to stay. The evolution of blogging has spawned this new mini version of blogging and many are latching on. The simplicity and ability to post frequently are what attract most to the concept. We expect much faster adoption and mainstream penetration than blogging in general.
I believe this is even more true in Africa as we simply don’t have the penetration that other developed countries have. Also take into consideration that the mobile phone remains the African version of the PC and as such micro-blogging addresses both penetration and accessibility problems. If you take Gatorpeeps into this context, couple it with the fact that less than 5% of Afrigator users have Twitter accounts then you’ll see why launching a micro-blogging platform to our audience is in fact a wise move.
I am a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of 
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Afrotwitter? – Gatorpeeps launched! “mobile phone remains the African version of the PC” says Afrigator http://tinyurl.com/qdx4d8
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Afrotwitter? – Gatorpeeps launched! “the mobile phone remains the African version of the PC” says Afrigator http://tinyurl.com/qdx4d8
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
I’m still not convinced that this offers anything that will distinguish it from Twitter, but am keen to see how things progress. Good luck and well done on making a positive and gutsy move.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Thx Pete, yes, at the moment it doesn’t offer that much more or less, but the thing is, WE can develop it. That’s the major difference, I guess… and you can bank on it it will evolve!
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
I think GatorPeeps is a really cool tool. I worked on something similar but it never took off so I killed it
. As a tool to connect AfriGator clients I think that it is great. I also like the idea behind Yammer – http://yammer.com – where u can setup company “groups”.
I am watching GatorPeeps with interest. Did u actually submit that check to Twitter or is that a joke?
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
[...] See Justin’s blog post about the move over here:Afrigator tried to buy Twitter, we launched Gatorpeeps instead. [...]
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Great work, Justin!
I’d still expect Gatorpeeps to leverage on Twitter’s inability to integrate mobile micro-blogging for Africa.
That way, Gatorpeeps could become more useful to African users in so many ways that Twitter has overlooked.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Hey Loy, thanks man. Mobile is high up on the priority list. Very high up…
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Hi Stii, that’ll be cool. So cool.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
an iphone app would be really cool too
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
love the cheque btw
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
I think it is a great response to Twitter, kind of like an African version of Twitter, I like it, its more personal and gives me that home sweet home feeling.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
yeah, “Twitter for Africa” – http://espresso-online.info/site/node/132.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Microblogging is certainly here to stay. I am new the whole “social networking” thing, but just looking at what Chris Roper did in reviewing Bob Dilan’s album on Twitter, in realtime, there is certainly major potential one cannot ignore.
And to have our African version, hopefully soon with full mobile device integration – which Twitter does not offer us – is really cool. That, in itself, is a distinguishing factor.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
love the idea no wonder i did a post on Afritwits …seems we were thinking in the same direction!
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Gatorpeeps looks interesting. Soon the whole of Africa will be all a-twitter on the web…
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Will keep an eye on future development. It is cool to have something uniquely African but I’m wondering how Twitter will impact on it. The advantage of Twitter is that it connects us with those beyond the continent.
Big ups for taking the step though.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Justin, Stii,
I think you guys have done a great job.
I think your angle with Gatorpeeps has to be hitting Africa and Middle East hard before they even hear about Twitter. Maybe even Vietnam : )
Forget about SA. I am a Twitter user and there is no way you could convince me to switch to another new platform that is not global and established. – even if I do sit upstairs and I am a Gator fan : )
Hit Nigeria and Cairo ASAP.
Good luck!
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
Well done for getting it out there.
Most people do move on from Twitter and a lot of SA people have not even heard of Twitter so nice one for getting in there early and connecting the gators up.
Much respect and best of luck.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
I guess Gatorspeep will do better by finding its own niche, differentiator and market that strongly instead of drawing unncessary parallelism with Twitter. That is my candid opinion, so please look at this angle and perfect your niche.
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
@Pete I don’t think we want to mimic Twitter to be honest. Yes, granted, it looks and functions a lot like it right now but this is the beginning. Give it some time to unfold and I think we’ll look a lot different to where we are right now.
@Loy that’s the idea man. Mobile, mobile, mobile!
@Jonathan there are apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile all on the development cards. Watch this space.
@Baldricman thanks man, took a lot of time creating that cheque
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
@DiscoverSEO, @Collins and @Emil – thanks for the kind words of support.
@Rika Susan that’s a classic, must remember that one!
@Kojo yes therein lies the power of Twitter but also the power of Gatorpeeps. While connecting with the world is great Twitter has become noisy, difficult to actually find people and has no focus on Africa. For the most part we’re trying to connect Africa which no one is doing!
Visit My Website
May 11, 2009
Permalink
@Elan that’s the plan of action. While we’re a) trying to connect our 12,000 users we’re also trying to b) connect new users who don’t yet have Twitter accounts in Africa. There is a massive market for this.
One thought though. If all the SA peeps moved to Gatorpeeps and the discussions were happening there you’d have no choice but to move. Who else would you talk to?
@myphotographer thanks so much!
@yinka absolutely. We’ll find that niche and we’re going to be working very aggressively on this!
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
Building Gatorpeeps was really a good move Justin, regardless of who says what, fact is no other too right now allows us to connect to other African bloggers as easily as gatorpeeps does, I LOVE IT! period.
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
Great move. Thanx for a great site that is going places.
Micro blogging is the new social networking tool, and making it available on the cellular network much like Mxit will really boost your brand image.
So what if you are not as famous as the big boys, you are here in Africa looking after African Interests, and we will support you here in Africa.
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
Great move. Thanx for a great site that is going places.
Micro blogging is the new social networking tool, and making it available on the cellular network much like Mxit will really boost your brand image.
So what if you are not as famous as the big boys, you are here in Africa looking after African Interests, and we will support you here in Africa.
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
No Captcha in your forms… you may soon be getting lots of spam…
How do you detect the difference between a robot and a person?
You do not want robots spamming your networks.
Visit My Website
May 12, 2009
Permalink
Hi Frank – good point and something we’re working on trying to avoid!!!
Visit My Website
May 13, 2009
Permalink
5 Things I love about GatorPeeps. A Review of Gatorpeeps.com…
Gatorpeeps
I had the privilege of witnessing Justin Hartman announce Gatorpeeps.com to the world during BarCamp Nigeria 2009 in Lagos Nigeria. After a few weeks of use, I am still excited about it. Gatorpeeps – essentially a subset of Afrigator – is a …