Nigerian technopreneurs, Chidi and Chika Nwaogwu who co-founded indigenous social network LAGBook, recently changed the name of their platform to PicRate.Me.  Chidi and Chika founded the social networking in April 2010 while studying as undergraduates at the of University of Lagos (Unilag). LAGBook was created to  serve as an exclusive network for their university (University of Lagos). Today, the network has grown outside the campus range, accounting for more than a million users.

Ventures Africa caught up with one of the twin co-founders, Chika to talk shop on the management of their new project, PicRate.Me.

LAGbook recently changed its name to PicRate.Me, Why?

When we started LAGbook some three years ago, our mission was to provide a platform that helps students of University of Lagos to unwind, connect with one another, and share their daily experience on campus, and the name ‘Lagbook’ was just perfect. Subsequently, we started expanding beyond the walls of the University, and our mission changed. We expanded to the Nigerian market, and the name ‘Lagbook’ was found wanting, and unable to depict our new mission. We didn’t want to change the name because of our previous success and growing popularity. We believed it’s like starting all over again, so we decided to reinvent the name ‘Lagbook’. The reinvention was simple; we capitalized the letters; l, a, and g, giving us ‘LAGbook’. LAGbook was a backronym for the words ‘Ladies And Gentlemen book’, and it matched our mission to expand the social experience of the youth demographic (18-30) around the world. Since domain names do not permit uppercase, there was no need for a reflection in our domain name. We didn’t have a problem in growing virally since ‘LAGbook’ and ‘Lagbook’ are verbally communicated in the same exact way.

Recently, we wanted to add ‘picture rating’ to our mission. This made us a social network for meeting new people and rating pictures. After reaching the milestone of a million registered members, we wanted to cover more grounds internationally, and penetrate a wider area. This could lead to a possible lawsuit from Facebook, so we decided it was time to change the name, and ‘PicRate’ was a good option. Unfortunately, to realise the mission of PicRate, we had to move to a new hosting service, and an instant migration of all data on LAGbook to the new host wasn’t feasible, so we had to send a message to all our registered members about the name change, and that they should all register to the new site. The signup has been encouraging, and PicRate is fast growing than we imagined.

Is there still a correlation between LAGbook’s mission and PickRate.Me?

LAGbook was born out of our curiosity to know what faculty a girl we (the founders) saw on the campus of University of Lagos. Then, we were freshers. My twin and I argued on what faculty a girl we saw on campus may belong to. I (Chika) said she was a science student because she was standing next to a hall of residence close to the Faculty of Science. My twin (Chidi) said she wasn’t because she was way too fashionable and beautiful to have any interest in Science. My twin proposed we create a social platform like MySpace, Facebook, and the rest, where students of our University will sign up for with a valid matriculation number. The idea was to grow a popular campus social network where all students with an active social life will sign up to, and we hoped the girl will sign up for an account too, and that way, she could tell us what faculty she belonged to, since the answer was required upon signup. Fortunately, she did sign up after eight weeks of run, and I was right about her being a science student.

So yes, there’s a correlation between the mission of both brands. PicRate still nurtures the mission we had at LAGbook, which is to create a virtual community for meeting new people everyday. Social discovery is still a part of PicRate’s mission. The difference between both brands is that PicRate has an additional mission,  which is rating the picture of your friends, and tell them how hot you think they’re. At LAGbook, the largest activity our members engaged in is the sharing of pictures, liking and commenting on pictures shared by friends. PicRate is just taking this activity to the next level, which is giving them the best from what they like the most.

Does your Mimiboard deal with Umutu continue with PicRate.Me?

The Mimiboard deal doesn’t continue with PicRate but it will with our newest brand Available.fm After the change of LAGbook to PicRate, and the change of web host as well, we received a lot of mails from registered members especially via other social networks expressing how much they do not find the change pleasing. Many said they missed their LAGbook friends, photos, videos, and other contents on the social network, and they want it back. So, my twin and I are working in partnership with an American social groupware platform GROU.PS to restore and revive the old LAGbook under a new brand name called Available.fm. Available.fm is LAGbook; same content, same registered members, same everything. The only difference is the brand name. When we are through with the restoration, LAGbook users can login without signing up for a new account since it is the same social network. They will find their friend circle intact, and their photos, videos, and other share contents available on the network just as they did on LAGbook, and so will they find the contents of their friends too. This means that our partnership with Mimiboard will continue with the brand Available.fm Available.fm will be a social network for people available for friendship or a relationship, which is the same as LAGbook’s mission, but with an online dating fusion.

LAGbook prides itself as Africa’s fastest growing social network; with the name-change at this stage of the business, don’t you think it could affect the business?

No, it will not affect the business. This is because we made sure that all our registered members received a message about the name change, and the change has been widely communicated verbally to others. Everybody who used LAGbook should have heard of the name change thus making the new brand name PicRate as popular as LAGbook. It’s more like a musician who changes name; it wouldn’t affect his popularity. The domain name of LAGbook points to PicRate so the growth was unaffected. PicRate will grow as fast as LAGbook.

What has been the challenges posed by these new development and how has the activity on the site grown since the launch?

The challenge posed was the migration of all users login data so that they will not have to register for a new account on PicRate, and unfortunately, that wasn’t feasible. So users have to re-register, which is uncool in an ideal situation. Though, a wonderful percentage of users have re-registered for an account on the new site, which is encouraging. The activity has grown by over 200%. People find picture rating fun just as they find playing video games fun. Girls share loads of pictures just to get rated by boys, and receive lovely comments too, and it’s fun watching people use and appreciate something you built.

What is the deal with Baazar Media Pte Ltd?

That’s the name of the new company that is in charge of PicRate.

Users pay to get themselves featured on Lagbook, is it also the same on the new platform?

No, they do not. On PicRate, there is currently no feature that suggest friends, but if that feature is introducing in the future, there’s a possibility that users will have to pay to get their profiles featured. It has been a wonderful source of monetization in the past.

What are the challenges experienced since the inception (with LAGbook) and how have you been able to tackle these challenges?

My twin and I are not only good programmers but we are better marketers. We’re more of businessmen than programmers, so growing LAGbook virally didn’t pose a challenge. The only challenge we had was turning our fast growing social network into lots of money. We had a popular social network but we didn’t have much profit. Though we reached profitability after two years of run, the profit margin was just narrow. Currently, we’re looking at not only growing a popular social network but also growing a popular social business.

What have you learnt since you created the business?

We’ve learnt a lot, and the leading lesson is that passion is a greater fuel to success than the love for money.

Critics have said that you model your site after Facebook, what have you got to say about that?

The basic idea was to create a Facebook for Africa, and we wanted a social network that is easy-to-use, and not difficult to understand like Twitter. We figured out that if we positioned everything at the same position they are on Facebook, people will not find it hard to access, and that helped increase our user activity by a great deal.

You created this business during your first year in school; how do you combine schooling and management of the site?

Being a student entrepreneur was uneasy for my twin and I. We often missed classes in order to have time to sit in front of our laptops and grow LAGbook. Thanks to our excellent performance at self- education, my twin and I will often photocopy our colleague’s notebook, read it up, sit for exams, and excel. That’s how we got through University.

What chance(s) does your business have to grow as big as Facebook?

We’re over a million now, and we add thousands of new members everyday. Facebook is a billion. Growing as big as Facebook isn’t impossible, but it will be challenging; definitely will be.

What is that unique attribute that stands Lagbook out of all other social network?

We are a social network without boundaries. We want to expand the online social experience of our growing users without limits. We give them the power to meet new people everyday, forge a great friendship which may last for life and lead to positive synergy.

What major deal has your company snagged in recent time?

We’ve worked with multinational companies like Etisalat and Blackberry, to mention a few.

Source of income for the website?

Advertising.

What’s  your staff strength presently?

At LAGbook, we had a staff strength of just 5 after downsizing from 25. The new company has a larger staff strength, but at Available.fm, it’s just my twin and I, and some techies at GROU.PS

What motivates you?

We were born motivated. We’re the type of people that wants to try out something every-time.

Who are your mentors and how have they motivated you?

Mentor? We don’t have any mentors at the moment. We simply learn from our mistakes. Experience has been our mentor.

Advise to upcoming Techpreneurs. What should they look out for and hold on to?

My advice is simple; dream like a beast, and chase your dream like a possessed demon. When you come across obstacles, crush them down, and if they prove difficult, bend around them. Make sure you’re always on the move.

Future plans concerning the business?

Keeping growing and expanding.

Any other information you did like to share with us?

Failure is in the head; if you don’t think it, you don’t see it, and if you don’t see it, you don’t feel it. Make sure you think positive at all times. Don’t think about what can possibly go wrong. Think about what can possibly go right. Make mistakes and learn, take adventures and experience. Never live your life in a box because the only time a man should live in a box is when he’s dead, and since you’re reading this, you aren’t, so live a little. That’s the philosophy that keeps us going.

Thank you for your time, Chika!