I’ve been surfing the Internet since I owned a modem and over the many years, I’ve watched hundreds of new websites emerge amongst the masses, most of which are International. But, of late, South Africa is booming into the Internet market, producing websites which offer just as much as International ones.
I’ve seen a number of South African start ups mimic International websites to make a living, which has always frustrated me, but yesterday, I saw something which I cannot determine whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Regator (Google it, I refuse to link to them) is a blog aggregator. Basically, it allows bloggers to sign up for an account and then their blog posts are streamed into the website and ranked according to visits, popularity and so forth. Sounds very much like Afrigator doesn’t it? or Amatomu for that matter. I’ve read a number of articles on Regator copying Afrigator and I have to say that’s it’s almost as obvious as the OOBA scenario I wrote about a while back.
Afrigator is one of my favourite startups and what I cannot decide is whether it’s a good thing that International companies are copying South African startups or whether it’s a bad thing because it’s copying?
I hope that this whole situation will actually benefit Afrigator by driving tons of traffic to the Afrigator website through the gossip and publicity!
Hey Chris
I really appreciate your support in this. I do have to say thought that I think we all over-reacted a little. I’ve just updated my blog after having a long discussion with Scott from Regator. See more here:
http://justinhartman.com/2008/07/04/regatorcom-update/
I honestly do believe that it was a coincidence and not a direct copy.
I agree Justin, I read your post as well as your team’s posts, and think that it’s not a direct copy and I personally don’t think it’s going to influence Afrigator much, although, I stand hard on hoping that the gossip and such will drive you lots of traffic!
Well, we certainly made a lot of noise about it, lol. It’s funny – so many of us spend time thinking about emigrating to Australia, and the moment an almost-South-African site comes from there, we’re all up in arms and waving pitchforks. Selective patriotism, anyone?
What I like about the Regator concept is that they’re choosing the news. Unlike Afrigator/Amatomu, not just any pundit with teh bl0gz can register and post whatever. I think we need something similar here in SA – a feed for the best of the best. Something we can show to the world, as opposed to pathetic Carte Blanche documentaries. Sorry, but that’s my opinion on that.
Nice comment Wogan, points out a lot of information most people probably negated! I just like the fact that our local brands are being known Internationally :)