Afrigator makes best Web 2.0 start-up list

Local website afrigator.com has been listed by prestigious US magazine Business 2.0 as one of the top Web 2.0 start-ups in the world.

Mike Stopforth, Afrigator director, said: “We wanted to give voice to African bloggers. It was fun to begin with, but it became more serious as time went by. It’s getting to the point where there aren’t enough resources to run the project and grow it.”

Business 2.0 said niche start-up Afrigator fills a void left by successful aggregator sites such as Technorati.

A blog media aggregator is an automated news feeder that allows users to register their websites and the programme collects syndicated web content (for example, news content, blogs, podcasts and vlogs) into a single location.

Existing aggregators are often dry in appearance serving a specialised market, but Afrigator has opted for a more dynamic design that represents Africa’s identity.

Justin Hartman, Afrigator chief executive, said: “A lot of people in South Africa are doing what they see overseas but staying with the African feel.

Stopforth said there were very few blog aggregators. “One of the best is Technocrati, but because it is so big and serving a global market, a lot of the good African content gets lost in the background.”

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