By Ebrima S. Dem
I recently started reading about the online community in The Gambia. Not just Gambians on social media but also home grown grown websites. My intention was to see which websites are most visited and how online businesses can target this growing trend of online interest, so as improve overall business performance and drive business in the country.
Many Gambians especially young people now browse the internet to look up jobs, fashion, sports, shopping and so on. The new and vibrant local websites are tackling head-on the challenges of increasing the country’s presence on the world-wide web. Access to internet mainly via mobile is changing the way Gambians interact, buy and sell online. Even e-commerce stores of various types are now used as alternatives and opportunity to buy stuff online and have the items delivered to their homes.
For a period of two months, I browsed numerous Gambian websites and using alexa analytics, woorank, whois lookup and other ranking tools I was able to reviewed over 50 them. I then ranked them according to the number of visitors received both locally and globally for a duration 6 months. Base on this analysis, I provide here a list of 10 most popular websites in The Gambia.
Created in February 2007, accessGambia.com is one of Gambia’s oldest online directories. The website has various information on business, charities, politics. It has one of the best google ranking on most highly visited sites for researchers and people wanting to learn more about The Gambia. The site has a low local visitors but very high visitors abroad
Created in December 2012, What on Gambia has proven to be one of most polemic online gossip platforms. Its features news, facts and fictions about life of Gambian celebrities. The site is popular among the youngsters. Due to it’s controversial stories, the site has lot of visitors both locally and globally.
Gambia.com is business directory which was created in May 2003. The website has featured a number of businesses in the Gambia making it one the most popular Gambian sites and many local business uses it to advertised their products and services
Created in September 2014, Gamjobs.com has created niche in online job search and advertisement in the country. The site is famous due to numerous job advertisements , with words such as “Jobs, “Gambia” employment being the most searched. The site has numerous visitors at home and abroad with England, Netherlands, Spain, USA, and France at the top list of visitors.
Gambiatalents.com was created in August 2006. It features various artist , writers, musicians, actors. The site is also very popular amongst the youths, who use it to learn about their icons and role models.
6. InGambia.com
Started in July 2015, Ingambia.com is an online lifestyle magazine. The site has a strong global and local visitor following with more than 70% of visitors sourced via facebook.
Buysell.gm is Gambia’s style of ebay. The site popularity shoot up around May 2015, but recently experiencing a decline. Buysell.gm provides people with the opportunity to buy and sell mostly used products.
8. Farmfresh.gm
This is online food store and delivery service created in March 2013. Farmfresh.gm is an e-commerce store and delivery service that has also been changing the way Gambians shop for goodies. The site is popular amongst Gambians in the diaspora who order food for their families back home, hoteliers. It is a one-stop shop for a wide range of fruits, vegetables as well as locally processed food items. The Site has high global visitors but lower hits locally,
Started in August 2008, Gambiapropertyshop.com has numerous hits mostly from Scandinavian countries. Although the site has a low ranking locally, it has registered numerous visitors globally, probably from people looking for housing and land in the country.
Created in May 2015, BusinessinGambia.com is relative in a child in the field. However, the site moving rapidly and reached over 3 millions hits wthin a short period. The website is filling the gap of providing information for small business owners, entrepreneurs and young people who want to learn about business and personal financial management.