Microsoft launches MSN Nigeria Portal

Devices and services company, Microsoft has partnered with Kagiso Media to officially unveil the MSN Nigeria portal in Lagos. Accordingly, the partnership with Kagsio sees Ad Dynamo providing contextual advertising on Microsoft’s network of sites, including Windows Live Hotmail with over 800,000 users in Nigeria and Windows Messenger with over 820,000 active users in Nigeria. This is part of the strategy to expand the Microsoft Network (MSN) Portal to deliver locally relevant news that are tailored to address local users in Nigeria and Africans in diaspora. The Microsoft’s Acting Country Manager, Awawu Olumide-Sojinrin while speaking during a media round table disclosed that the MSN Nigeria portal features the trademark MSN homepage dedicated to Nigerian news, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and weather as well as links to other Microsoft-related services such as Bing, Outlook and Skype. He told IT journalists that the portal is expected deliver locally relevant news tailored to address local users in Nigeria and Africans in diaspora respectively. Also speaking, Justin Dewhirst, Area Executive Producer, CEE & MEA, Apps Media & Publishing Microsoft, tld the gathering that the, “MSN is about bringing contents together in one portal and Kagiso has built the expertise for great experiences on the Windows operating system”. According to him, “MSN is accessible on personal computers (PC), smartphones and feature phones. He reiterated that MSN Nigeria is a way to synchronize great people with great technology in the process of building a greater content experience. For Dele Akinsade, Director Developer Platform Evangelist, West East and Central Africa Microsoft during the demonstration of the portal, said that already, MSN Nigeria syndicated local news in Nigeria from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), as well as publishers such as BangShowbiz. “It also features dedicated pages for news (national, African and world news), sport (local and world sport news), entertainment (local and global celebrity entertainment news) and lifestyle (including fashion, travel, tech & gadgets, motoring).” he expplained. Throwing more lights on the partnership, Marcus Stephens, General Manager- Publishing, Kagiso Media said Kagiso Media has been partnering with Microsoft since 2010 to share the vision for building communities with local talent content providers. “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,” he said.