A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Vconnect’s homepage and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had reverted the homepage (and probably their strategy) back to their business listing roots.
I earlier wrote about Vconnect’s decision to pivot fully into a marketplace. I felt it was not a smart move at that time, why would they give up their clear lead in local search and descend into the crowded ecommerce space?
There are some business ideas that come and go…. just like trends. You do not want to be trending, you want to be evergreen, olden and golden.
I do not expect Nairaland to pivot into a social network overnight or pivot into a Question and Answer platform. They are a forum and we all love them for that. True, they may not be in the media, but they are where we need them to be.
Serious businesses define their mission and vision early enough and then stick to it. Not moving with every wave of business that are trending.
Different businesses trend at different times, I have personally observed the wave from social networking to music/entertainment and then on to business listing (Vconnect was part of the pioneers of this wave) and then on to ecommerce.
Vconnect needs to stubbornly stick to its initial concept of business listings, they have the data on Nigerian businesses that no one else cared enough to build, not even the Nigerian government has the kind of data Vconnect has on businesses. Why would they toss that away and enter the trendy ecommerce market?
We all need to evaluate our strengths and increase it. Become stronger and win over time, and in case you have made a mis-step or two already, you are always free to retrace your steps…. Just like Vconnect.
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Watching The World
- TechPoint.NG has this article about The re-evolution of VConnect
