News24, a South African news Web site, has introduced a site in Kenya featuring the latest local news, sport and business.
The site will provide competition in the online news space to the established Web sites of Kenyan newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard. It has already set itself apart from those sites by offering access from mobile devices via m.news24.com/kenya.
The introduction of the site is welcome news for owner, Naspers, which was recently forced to close its online retail site, Kalahari Kenya, after it failed to turn a profit. The Web site will look to repeat the success of its South African sister site, which recently came second to the BBC in the World Web site section in data from the Digital Media and Marketing Association.
"News24 is built on three basic principles - content, community and technology,” said editor Jannie Momberg. “We've been around for almost 13 years and have learnt over time the digital lessons of usability, availability and multi-platform accessibility. One of our key focuses is to
ensure the user experience on any platform [is] optimised for that particular platform. Our operational and development teams are working at improving these areas on a daily basis."
The success of the mobile platform in SA has encouraged the company to incorporate it into the Kenyan site.
"In addition to the mobile site, News24's mobile applications and widgets have also contributed to the growth in the brand's mobile audience,” said Ronald Bach, product manager for News24 Mobile. “News24 now has over 170 000 active monthly application users, generating more than 3.3 million sessions every month across multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone 7, Nokia OVI and Samsung bada apps."
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