Africa.com
Encyclopedia
Africa.com is an organization created to change the way the world sees Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, using the ever growing use of internet. Using the online web portal
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....

 about the continent, its main purpose is to be a unique platform for anyone interested in Africa to learn more about all aspects of the continent. Also it provides for both business and world leaders accurate information about the investment climate, thus becoming the online portal for the world’s engagement with Africa.

The Africa.com organization has representation offices in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, South Africa; Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

, Nigeria; and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, USA. African American business woman and entrepreneurTeresa Clarke
Teresa Clarke
Teresa Hillary Clarke, daughter of Audrey M. Clarke of Los Angeles, is a prominent African American businesswoman, entrepreneur and investment banker. She has a lucrative career and extensive experience in financial management and international business. Growing up in California, Teresa H...

 is the CEO and founder of the site; CBS News correspondent Jacqueline Adams is the Executive Editor, and Jendayi Frazer
Jendayi Frazer
Jendayi Elizabeth Frazer is the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, heading the Bureau of African Affairs. She currently serves as a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and Department of Social and Decision...

 (Ambassador to South Africa) is an Advisory Board Member.

History

Africa.com was launched in February 2010, by Teresa Clarke after resigning from her position as a managing director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs & Co. Teresa Clarke is also co-founder of the Student Sponsorship Programme (www.ssp.org.za) in South Africa.

Teresa Clarke lived in South Africa from 1995 to 2000 and acquired the domain name around 2001. “Over most of the last decade, I worked at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

. During my free time, I imagined what I would do with the domain name and I looked at other African websites.”

In a Wall Street Journal article from May 2010, Africa.com was mentioned because of its potential relevance with the impending 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...

 in South Africa that same year. “The site is small — with about 50,000 monthly unique users — but Ms. Clarke said she sees potential in the growth of African investment and a middle class in several African countries.”. Since then, Africa.com it has expanded to add information about each of the continent's 54 countries with over 30,000 daily visitors (Alexa.com report).

Partnerships

Recently Africa.com has partnered with a number of well-known content providers including The Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

 and HAND/EYE Magazines, McKinsey and Company, Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

 and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Mo Ibrahim Foundation
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was launched in October 2006 to support good governance and great leadership in Africa.It was founded by Dr.Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese philanthropist and businessman who founded telecommunications company Celtel International in 1998....

. Also has developed its own original content including blogs from the likes of a former president of Nigeria and several U.S. ambassadors to various African countries. Also it has published the first and only online museum guide providing detailed information about museums in every African country. Thus becoming a heavily visited site and destination for users from different continents interested in Africa.

The site aims to provide travel information, financial, political and cultural news, maps, information about international events and non-profit organizations related to Africa, as well as views from a varied array of opinion-leaders. It also provides encyclopedic information about each of the 54 countries on the African continent, with specially written travel information about 54 countries and 27 cities as well as 200 curated videos. Designed in collaboration with Brightcove Inc., Africa.com offers the same flexible, multi-language, on-line video platform used by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

.

On January 2011, Africa.com received over three million page views from almost one million users, the majority from the United States and Europe.

On a March 2011 interview to Memeburn.com, Teresa Clarke said: “For me, ownership of the Africa.com domain name is about more than a business opportunity. I see this as a tremendous privilege and a great responsibility. Whoever owns this domain name has a monumental opportunity to shape how the internet world views Africa. Africa has been very good to me throughout my life and my career, and I wanted to step up to the challenge of ensuring that this great vehicle for change is used responsibly and effectively.”

On Thursday April 28, 2011, The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan pledged government support and collaboration with The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) when he hosted Founder Tony Elumelu and the TEF Advisory Board in Abuja
Abuja
Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the centre of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory . Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos...

, stating that relevant government institutions will be asked to work with the foundation. The Advisory Board members who accompanied Elumelu when he paid a courtesy call on the President included Teresa Clarke, Founder and CEO of Africa.com and H.E. Shaukat Aziz
Shaukat Aziz
Shaukat Aziz is a world acclaimed Pakistani economist who was the 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan from May 20, 2004 to 15 November 2007 in a joint military government led by General Pervez Musharraf. A Citibank executive, Aziz returned to Pakistan from the United States to be became Finance...

, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

Ms. Clarke said Africa.com is working on a platform that would allow people to check stock-market prices and make transactions on their cellphones.

Country profiles

Africa.com offers an encyclopedia, nicknamed “Afripedia”, that aims to provide information about each of the 54 sovereign states, including Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 and various island groups. Every country profile offers an overview of said country, as well as historic, geographic, economic and social data. The section also includes a fact & figures entry, information about the leaders of the country, and a “Rights and Liberties Report”.

The site also offers interaction with Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, travel and music videos, and short films and documentaries.

The Rights and Liberties Report

In partnership with Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

, Africa.com brings information on the human rights and civil liberties of every African country. Basic freedoms, political rights, freedom of religion, the right to free speech, free elections, political freedom, Africa human rights.

The “Rights and Liberties Report” is a scored provided by Freedom House, an advocacy organization that monitors and supports the expansion of freedom around the world. The organization has developed a survey to measure and rate worldwide political rights and civil liberties. A rating of 1 indicates the highest degree of freedom and 7 the least amount of freedom. The political rights and civil liberties ratings for each country or territory are combined and averaged to determine an overall "freedom status."

Countries and territories with a combined average rating of 1.0 to 2.5 are considered "Free"; 3.0 to 5.0, "Partly Free"; and 5.5 to 7.0 "Not Free". On Africa.com website upward or downward trend arrows are assigned to countries and territories. Trend arrows indicate general positive or negative trends since the previous survey that are not necessarily reflected in the raw points and does not warrant a ratings change.

The Ibrahim Index

Being an aggregator of information regarding the African continent, Africa.com features the Ibrahim Index of African Governance
Ibrahim Index of African Governance
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is an attempt to statistically monitor African governance levels throughout all the countries of Africa. Funded and led by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, it uses a number of different indicators to compile an overall ranking of countries, which is designed to be...

 funded and led by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Mo Ibrahim Foundation
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was launched in October 2006 to support good governance and great leadership in Africa.It was founded by Dr.Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese philanthropist and businessman who founded telecommunications company Celtel International in 1998....

. It is an attempt to statistically monitor African governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...

 levels throughout all the countries of Africa.

Safari Wizard

Recently Africa.com partnered with Rhino Africa, a South African safari
Safari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...

 operator, to develop the Safari Wizard guide. This tool aims to help users design a custom safari among the main safari destinations in Africa: South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. It offers a filter with which users can select different criteria, including location, children facilities, means of transportation, activities, cost, facilities, lodging amenities and animal sightings.

It also offers a Safari Advisor guide that aims to suit different safari customers based on their travel habits, destination of choice, activities they are looking for and additional requirements (e.g. vaccines for yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

, visa requirements, packing tips and safety concerns).

Aside from a traveling blog, it also offers maps and travel information as well as a museum guide for each country, that provides information of when to go, how to get there, what to do, safety and security tips and local advice. The Travel Health section holds information for tourists about vaccinations, medications, and other health advice for travel in Africa.

It also Africa.com offers direct links with other travel website like Tripadvisor
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. It is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of...

.com, Bookingbuddy.com and STA Travel
STA Travel
STA Travel is one of the two largest travel organizations for students and young people. It was founded in 1979 by acquiring assets from the bankruptcy of AUS Student Travel in Australia including their successful UK company ....

 for booking flights, hotels, get deals and organizing trips.

The site offers business and financial information to its visitors, aside from that provided by the finance blog posts, based on information from the Council on Foreign Relations, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 Africa and Foreign Affairs magazine. It also offers articles, videos and interviews from McKinsey Quarterly.

Recently Africa.com began to offer the Africa-related articles of HAND/EYE Magazine, a New York-based print and online publication focused on global arts, crafts, design, and culture. HAND/EYE aims to highlight creative projects and ventures originating in Africa.

Africa.com devotes a feature to Africa First, the short film program is sponsored by Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....

. The Africa First Short Film Program aims to support films that aspire to artistic excellence and accomplished storytelling, and substantially contribute to the development of local film industries. Award recipients of the 2010 Focus Features Africa First Short Film Program can use award money received from Africa First to complete initial production and to pay for post-production costs such as laboratory fees, sound mixing, and editing.

Partnering with SARFM Radio, founded by Zimbabwean Chaka, radio.Africa.com provides with African music in all possible genres from the continent.

Audience

The site's primary audience is American, aims to shape the opinion of Americans on Africa using African sources, rather than the Western media.

Based on a recent study more than 90 percent of Africa.com users have some college or are college graduates and about 22 percent have at least one graduate degree. Their top three areas of interest are travel, business/investment and arts and culture.

Approximately 60 percent of Africa.com users are white or Asian, 23 percent are African and 17 percent are African-American. Approximately 52 percent are male and 48 percent female. More than 50 percent come from the United States; 20 percent from Europe, 20 percent from Asia and the balance from South America, India and South Africa.

More than 70 percent of users connect to Africa.com via broadband. On May 26, 2011 the Facebook page of Africa.com surpassed the 2,500 followers. And as of June 2011 their Twitter account had little over 900 followers.

According to an Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...

 report, by June 2011, Africa.com's three-month global Alexa traffic rank is 113,943. The site's visitors view 3.8 unique pages each day on average. While roughly 54% of visitors to the site come from the US, where it is ranked #34,025, it is also popular in South Africa, where it is ranked #6,275.

Participation in public events

  • Harvard Business School Africa Club
  • Harvard Club of New York City
  • Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum
  • Student Sponsorship Programme 10th Anniversary
  • SACCA – Africa Platform 2010 Missing Middle Summit
  • Black Girls Rock - BET
    Bet
    Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...

  • Africa Leadership Network
  • Wharton Africa Business Forum
  • Princeton Club – Princeton in Africa
    Princeton in Africa
    Princeton in Africa is a nonprofit organization that selects recent college graduates to work as Princeton in Africa Fellows at a variety of organizations in Africa. PiAf places graduating seniors and young alumni of all non-profit colleges and universities in the U.S. who seek to serve other...

     program
  • Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College
  • Harvard Business School African-American Student Union – Naylor Fitzhugh Conference (Jacqueline Adams)
  • The Network Journal 25 Business Women to Watch
  • Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research
  • League of Black Women

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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