Howzit MSN, one of Africa’s largest portals with 3.3 million unique browsers per
month, is set to launch dedicated versions of its site for Nigeria and Kenya.
Operated by Kagiso Media in partnership with Microsoft, Howzit MSN is the South
African version of the popular Microsoft MSN portal. The site plans to expand into East
and West Africa to bring users in those markets local news that is tailored to their
needs.
“There is a growing hunger for localised content across Africa as undersea cables,
mobile broadband and falling internet access costs bring more people online. We aim
to address this need with the same formula of locally relevant, easy to digest content
that we offer our audience in South Africa,’ says Marcus Stephens, GM of Howzit MSN.
“We want to be as local in content, look and feel as possible. The many readers we
already have in Nigeria and Kenya are sure to be delighted when they go online on 1
July and are greeted by fully local content rather than the American version of the site
they are used to seeing. This is just the start for our business in Africa – we aim to
bring more content to this market and to launch in other countries over the next few
months.’
Further channels will be added to the mix as the new portals evolve. The content will
be produced and curated by MSN’s African editorial team, which is led by Kate
Hodges, African editor in Cape Town.
MSN Africa will place a heavy emphasis on mobile access to the news and will create
mobile versions of the sites that can be accessed from feature phones as well as
smartphones. This will allow it to serve the continent across multi-screens meeting
the demand for many people who are getting online for the first time through their
phones.
