Seun Osewa is a Nigerian Internet entrepreneur and native of Sango Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. He was born in December 17, 1982 and is the founder of Nairaland which has been described as Africa’s biggest online forum. 

Believed to be a school dropout, Seun is a former student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). During his days in OAU, Seun was a student of Electrical Engineering but because he had developed a strong passion for programming and the internet, he resorted to dropping out of the university in the hope that doing so would allow him time to fully concentrate on his programming career. 

In 2013, Seun was featured on Forbes’ list of Africa’s best successful entrepreneurs under age 30. 

Early Internet Career

Although he is now a successful internet entrepreneur, Seun Osewa did have his own share of rough patches particularly in the early phase of his Internet journey. It was gathered that following his dropout from the university, Seun began his Internet career with web hosting business in 2003. However, the business wound up only three months after it was set up. 

Having failed to sustain his web hosting business as a result of inadequate capital, Seun had to resort to a regular job which he secured following the failure of his web hosting business. However, he soon left the job as he was not satisfied with the demanding nature of regular jobs; he had indeed had a nice feel of creative freedom through his earlier web hosting business and so, he preferred having a job that would guarantee him such freedom again. 

Driven by his passion for the Internet, Seun was making use of the Internet for research about great business ideas. He did this for two years till he was motivated to use Python programming in creating an online forum. Despite not having the required amount of capital, Seun succeeded in creating the forum through the help of a relative who paid for his internet access and $15 monthly VPS hosting. By December 2003, Seun had succeeded in launching three forums. Notably, one of the forums was to serve students of higher institutions while the two others were to cater to IT discussions as well as Nigeria’s early GSM industry as of then. 

Seun happens to have made remarkable success with the mobile forum, courtesy of support from Mr. Yomi Adegoye and Mr. John Sagai Adams. 

Personal Life

Seun’s lifestyle has been described as that of a gentle personality who doesn’t crow about with fame or wealth despite being rich. In fact, some people have claimed that unlike other top bloggers, the Internet entrepreneur doesn’t fancy showcasing himself as a celebrity. 

Besides the belief that Seun doesn’t fancy showcasing his fame or wealth, another striking fact about the young entrepreneur is his marital status. The 38-year-old Internet entrepreneur is not married. 

Religion

It’s been rumoured that Seun Osewa was once a Christian but information recently gathered about his religious status indicates he is an atheist. 

About Nairaland

Nairaland is hugely acclaimed as Nigeria’s and Africa’s biggest online forum with vast topical coverage. The forum was launched in 2005 by Seun Osewa and he is said to have created Nairaland as a result of the limited focus of the previously existing mobilenigeria.com. 

It is of interest that even though mobilenigeria.com (a telecommunications-centred site) was attracting huge traffic, Seun felt the site could not serve all categories of the Nigerian internet audience due to its limited focus. With the strong intent of improving upon mobilenigeria.com, Seun launched Nairaland as a forum with extended focus. Notably, Nairaland focuses on a good deal of topical categories including, but not limited to, politics, sports, education, romance, programming, mobile phones, business and gaming. 

Of course, the quest to cater to a wider Nigerian internet audience may be described as the motive behind Seun’s creation of Nairaland. But again, such a quest could have been stimulated by the fact that at the time of creating Nairaland, Nigerians in the United Kingdom and the United States owned majority of Nigerian sites. It is of interest that such sites focused on issues that appealed only to the tastes of Nigerians abroad. 

Seun’s Early Expectation with Nairaland

Owing to the fact that majority of Nigerian sites (during the earliest days of Nairaland) were owned by abroad-based citizens and were tailored to foreign issues, Nairaland did not seem to witness serious competition. In fact and as a forum with topical categories for almost anything the Nigerian internet audience wanted, Nairaland was able to outperform Talknaija and Naijaryders. 

Seun felt he could leverage on the absence of serious competition to drive adequate traffic to Nairaland so that he could make as much as #60,000 per month. But fortunately, he indeed earned more than he had planned for owing to the good deal of traffic Nairaland was generating. 

Google’s Ban on Nairaland

In 2012, Nairaland was banned from AdSense, Google’s ad network. The ban was said to have resulted from the forum’s high concentration of sexual topics. Even with this ban by Google, Nairaland still garners a good deal of monthly revenue through the sale of ad space. 

Net Worth of Nairaland

According to hypestat.com, Nairaland’s net worth is estimated at $5.6 million. It is quite fascinating that Nairaland makes millions of naira monthly even without carrying Google adverts. 

It’s been rumoured that following Google’s ban of Nairaland (for carrying too many sexual topics), Seun diverted to the sale of ad space through which he earns between #4 million and #5 million every month. 

Also of interest is that Nairaland, which is now worth $5.6 million, could have been sold in 2011 when a company offered to acquire it at a price of $1 million. Reports claim that the acquisition attempt fell through as Seun was not ready to accept the company’s offer. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, reading this post has provided you with substantial information about Seun Osewa particularly with emphasis on his acclaimed status as the founder of Nairaland (Africa’s biggest online forum).