Founded in February 2012, The Imongo is a social discovery, social entertainment, and social informative network created by 15 year-old, Terkura Ephraim Unongo. Terkura is the single founder of Imongo, though he gets support at times from friends to continue developing his network.
The name Imongo is derived from the Tiv native dialect of the Tiv tribe of North Central/Middle Belt Nigeria, in its simplest translation, Imongo means gathering, which I feel is a name that suits my goal the most, to create an international gathering of people from various walks of life coming together to mingle, stay informed, be entertained and share only what they want to share, and how they want to share it with the people in their lives and new people.
What inspired you to launch The Imongo?
I was inspired to create The Imongo because of my dream to change the world, and to show the world that an African who is a
Nigerian is worthy of competing with, I want to bring positive development to my nation Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large,
Imongo is my first way that I have begun to realize this dream, I want it to be written in the books of history that an African who is a
Nigerian made an impact in this digital age, by creating a social utility that competed with western created digital age wonders such as
Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc.
There are so many social networks, but yet they are so few successful social networks in terms of popularity, users, and activity. I have
launched The Imongo to become one of if not the most successful social networks on the web, created by a Nigerian.
Tell us more about yourself?
My full name is Terkura Ephraim Unongo, I am a 15 year old teenager and 9th grade student of Hillcrest School. I am a Roman Catholic. I speak Tiv, English, a little Hausa, and a little French, I enjoy listening to music, playing guitar, watching movies, playing video games, and talking with and meeting with people. I enjoy a lot of things basically. I want to become a Medical Doctor, Computer
Programmer, Businessman, and then hopefully go into politics to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the future.
What is your business model?We make money via advertising . At the moment our audience is in Africa and Asia, then the rest of the
world. I am targeting to get most of Imongo’s members between the ages of 15 and 35 in Nigeria, then the rest of Africa, then we will expand to the Middle East, the rest of Asia, and beyond. I believe there are many firms that want a perfect platform to reach this age group.
How has the going been since launching in 2012?
We have been good. Our main challenge now is people, committed people, we are still very young and new and to grow exponentially to our full potential, we need committed people, people working on content, advertising and marketing, etc. but we are working on recruiting committed people that share similar views with us of making a difference in the world, and God willing, people that will work with us and work alongside us will come and join our team as we work towards the realization of Imongo’s dream of being at the top.
Currently Imongo has no official partnerships, except for our platform that Imongo is built on, but we are working on getting partners, and affiliates but currently we are not there yet.
Imongo a social discovery, social entertainment, and social informative social network sees no local competition in the categories
which we are categorized in currently, but in terms of website popularity, we have many competitors in Nigeria.
Imongo is unique from competitors because what we are and what we are trying to be is a 3 in 1 social network that has social discovery for meeting new people, social entertainment, and social information for being entertained with music, videos, and staying updated with the latest news, trending topics, etc.
Where do you expect your business to be in five years?Five years from now I see Imongo available in Chinese & Arabic, hopefully Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba, Tiv, Afrikaans, Swahili, French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and other languages, I see Imongo expanded to the whole of Africa, the U.K., & the U.S., at least, maybe Russia, China, Japan, and the Middle East, I see Imongo with approximately 100 million users worldwide. We want to be in every country in Africa, move into the Middle East, Asia, and the rest of the world.
Imongo has received funding for initial set up, and we are now working
on getting investments that will close the gap dramatically between
where we are and where we would like to be.
One word to boys/ girls your age who want to start their own businesses?
I encourage all boys and girls out there thinking of tech business or any kind of legitimate business to go for it, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, money isn’t the major thing that drives success, passion, motivation, hardword, determination, and faith is what makes things happen. Don’t be afraid to dream, ignore all those telling you that you can’t do it, take criticism in but never let opinions bring you down, plan, outline your steps and then implement them. Never give up, for our greatest weakness lies in giving up, keepon trying. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, be confident, but don’t be arrogant. Fall in love with your work and your dream, and with your efforts towards the realization of your dream.
