Afrigator, a multimedia meme tracking site aggregating African blogs, podcasts and video, has been acquired by South African conglomerate MIH Group/Naspers. We gave Afrigator a positive review nine months ago and CNN's Business 2.0 called it one of 31 companies to watch outside the US last year. (Warning: Insipid, traditional media, ad-ridden "slide show" behind that CNN link.)
The Afrigator interface, algorithm and user experience were key in driving the kind of growth that made it an interesting acquisition target. We haven't been able to get any details on the record about the price paid but suffice it to say that Afrigator's founders and angel investors have all been well rewarded.
First coverage of the deal came from Africa tech 2.0 watcher Charl Norman, who puts Afrigator's acquisition in context with other recent deals in the region.
If you're unfamiliar with the blogging scene in Africa, Afrigator is a good place to discover top blogs there like The Mail & Guardian's Thought Leader, the occasionally prurient tech blog iMod, the very politicized Black Looks and the internationally minded Afromusing.
We'd like to offer our congratulations to the Afrigator team and to the African blogosphere, whose work has been recognized by a large traditional company as important enough to warrant a significant acquisition in that space. Such recognition isn't the most important thing in the world, the social media world has plenty of its own inherent worth, but such validation is nice too, even for people beyond the founding team. We assume that Afrigator will expand its operations significantly with this infusion of support.
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Comments
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Cool site name! I've come across some rather impressive South African blogs before. Will definitely check out the site now :)
Posted by: Nick Stamoulis | September 5, 2008 1:34 PM
Hey Marshall
Thanks for the write-up, mate!
Posted by: Mike Stopforth | September 5, 2008 10:44 PM
Well done to the Afrigator team!
Posted by: Robin Pietersen | September 6, 2008 12:58 AM
This shows us once again that there's more to the web than just US based websites. South Africa is pretty advanced in terms of web and mobile technologies. A large portion of the population are early adopters. And yes, South Africa is a country - not a continent !
Thumb up to Afrigator !
Posted by: Vincent Cassar | September 6, 2008 5:54 AM
This is fantastic! To see African startups getting so much coverage really makes me feel proud! Thanks for the mention, it means a lot :)
Posted by: Chris M | September 6, 2008 7:03 AM
Hi Marshall
Thanks for the great write up and ongoing support for our project. We are really looking forward to what this deal means for the company and we plan on launching some cool new things in the very near future!
Posted by: Justin Hartman | September 6, 2008 7:49 AM
This is wonderful news for Afrigator!
They offer some great features which are not found on the rival aggregator, amatomu.com.
What I think would be a great addition is for afrigator to display an blog rank on blogs like amatomu does.
Posted by: Richard Catto
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September 6, 2008 12:19 PM
try to say out loud what marshall wrote 3x fast
Posted by: Allen Stern
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September 6, 2008 12:28 PM
Nice post Marshall, this is another mile stone for our small local community!
Posted by: Charl Norman | September 8, 2008 1:03 AM
Congratulations are in order for the Afrigator team! Im specifically pleased to have been part and parcel in witnessing its growth and morph over the past three years!
Posted by: Nairobian Perspective | September 8, 2008 4:54 AM
nice site just found it recently I love that is it from Africa
http://naijagal.blogspot.com
Posted by: naijagal | September 20, 2008 7:05 PM