Ever heard of Nigeria’s very own mailing service, Naij Mail? Well, if you haven’t, that won’t be so surprising. Quite true, not everyone has heard of Naij Mail, talk more about using the service.
No one is to blame. Yeah! No one!
But if the memories are still fresh in your head, then you certainly deserve some accolades.
Literally, thinking about it makes me want to cry. I really can’t help it.
Naij Mail (mail.naij.com) is unarguably the first ever locally-owned mailing service launched in Nigeria. It was introduced in 2014 at a time when so many people wondered why no Nigerian-owned mailing service existed. Naij Mail was created as an alternative mailing service provider for Nigerians.
Powering a mailing service shouldn’t be so hard for one of Nigeria’s most visited website, right?
So I thought.
Why did Naij have to discontinue Naij Mail?
Within the last quarter of 2017, Naij released a public statement that it would be discontinuing its mailing service by January 2018.
In their own words;
The company’s decision to seize operation of the mail service comes as a result of the service’s inability to compete with the bigger players in the market, like Gmail or Yahoo. The cost of resources needed to maintain the service also contributed to this decision.
Truth be told, some folks saw it coming (sooner or later) and the news wasn’t so much a shocker. Lesson learnt from Linda Ikeji’s Social Media which peradventure would have become another authority in Nigeria.
LIS didn’t get discontinued but its activities from recent years haven’t been so successful.
According to forentrepreneurs.com, there are couple of reasons why startups fail.
Of the various reason, Naij pointed out their inability to compete with bigger players in the market as the cost of resources needed for them to keep Naij Mail up and running was a major factor.
It’s obvious that the company isn’t yet capable of bearing its own weight and that of its subsidiary, Naij Mail.
Even though we know full well that Naij isn’t a startup, was the death of Naij Mail inevitable? Kindly leave your thoughts in the comment section below.