As a blogger or a curious Kenyan, you must have wondered what the top most visited websites in Kenya are and even more about the kind of revenue they generate. This question boggled me for a while until I decided to conduct my own research, which I’ll summarize for you today.
Introduction
Kenya’s internet penetration is a whopping 83 percent and the highest in Africa according to Internet World Stats meaning many Kenyans are using the internet to surf, connect, share photos and communicate.
Yet some of the most significant Kenyan traffic generators are news sites, which means we love being up to date with current events. Nonetheless, Kenyan news is dominated by very few players who rake millions of shillings from this traffic.
Here is a list of the top 10 most visited websites in Kenya and the average revenue they generate from simple site ads.
Ranking Procedure
Before we dive in, let me give you a brief description of how I came up with this list.
- I acquired a list of the top 50 websites in Kenya from Alexa Ranking
- Top Kenyan websites owned by Kenyan entities were short-listed.
- Top Kenyan blogs offering news content were sampled.
- Each of the news sites was analyzed by SiteWorthTraffic to get the website world rank, monthly unique visitors and approximate monthly revenue.
At the time of my research, I arrived at the list below of the most popular websites in Kenya, the estimated cost it will take to buy each, their monthly traffic and revenue.
The List
Now let’s dive in.
10. Mpasho.com
Mpasho is considered one of the leading gossip sites in Kenya, second only to Ghafla. It is known to publish controversial topics and heresy, using captivating titles for its articles and employing vigilance in social media marketing.
Mpasho, which is ranked at number 18,989 in the world, gets 790,000 unique visitors monthly, it’s valued at Ksh 13 Million and has monthly revenue of Ksh. 180,000. That my friend is the salary of the Kenya Police assistant inspector general.
9. K24tv.co.ke
K24 TV, which is owned by TV Africa, is one of the fastest-growing TV stations in Kenya. The company was quick to invest in a website in order to widen its footprint in the country.
Their website, ranked at number 18,066 in the world, gets approximately 1 million unique visitors a month, generates Ksh 170,000 in revenues and is valued at Ksh 12.6 million or the price tag of a new 2018 model Porsche Cayenne.
8. The-Star.co.ke
The star is a popularly visited Kenyan news website owned by Radio Africa Group – a worthy competitor of the three top media houses in Kenya.
With more Kenyans becoming aware of the effects of monopoly, The Star, the only formidable news source alternative to the big players (Nation and The Standard), is slowly gaining traction with an estimated 882,000 unique visitors monthly.
The site, which ranks at number 17,243 globally is valued at Ksh 12.2 million and makes Ksh 167,000 monthly; equivalent to the average salary of an engineering project manager.
7. Ghafla.com
Ghafla was designed similar to a top USA gossip site, TMZ making it one of the leading gossip and most controversial sites in Kenya. It bashes readers with all kinds of interesting thought-provoking and emotional content.
The blog gets approximately 2,100,000 visitors monthly; the combined voters’ population of Kisii, Homabay, Bungoma Kisumu and Kitui counties.
Ghafla which is ranked number 7928 globally makes an estimated Ksh 450,000 per month and is valued at Ksh 32.5 Million
6. Sde.co.ke
A subsidiary website of the Standard Media Group, which focuses on celebrity gossip and controversies. Some of its entities, which are popular newspapers, include The Nairobian, Crazy Monday and Pulse Magazine.
The site is ranked at number 7389 globally, has a valuation of Ksh 32 million, attracts 2,400,000 visitors per month and its revenue of Ksh 440,000 is the average salary of a senior Kenyan medical officer.
5. Citizentv.co.ke
Sk Macharia’s Citizen TV website is one of his biggest assets. The site alone has a brand valuation of Ksh 34 million and is currently one of the most trusted news brands in the country.
The site receives a consistent 2,900,000 visitors monthly and has a revenue-generating potential of Ksh 460,000, monthly just from automated ads. That’s double the basic salary of a county assembly speaker.
It is also one of the top 10,000 websites in the world, at number 7351.
4. Kenyans.co.ke
Kenyans.co.ke is a news site with an online reputation similar to top media companies yet was established less than 8 years ago. Its editorial group has worked tirelessly to generate content around the clock. It majors on news but also publishes content on common Kenyan Google queries.
Today it is ranked at number 2982 globally and claims a spot in Kenya’s big 5 with a valuation of Ksh. 79 million. It gets 2,900,000 visitors per month who enable it to earn Ksh 1,000,000, which is more than what a Resident Engineer for a government project earns a month
3. Tuko.co.ke
Just like Kenyans.co.
Try googling any normal Kenyan query and 2 out of every 5 searches, you will spot a Tuko article. They mostly report news updates but have monopolized Google rankings on any common local keyword.
At a valuation of Ksh 82.3 million, the site gets 4.77 million monthly unique visitors and makes Ksh. 2.45 million monthly. Top Kenyan CEOs earn that salary per month. Tuko is ranked number 2467.
2. Standardmedia.co.ke
The Standard Media Group, which also owns sde.co.ke, seems to be reaping a lot from its online platforms. Anybody who advertises on the site is sure to get wire coverage courtesy of its 11.7 million monthly visitors.
The site publishes content on anything while emphasizing on news. Due to its credibility from the daily newspaper industry, netizens are more likely to trust the credibility of its content thus the wide monthly coverage; more than a fifth of the country.
Standard Media website, which is ranked at number 1230 in the world is worth Ksh 179 million and earns approximately Ksh 2.45 million per month.
1. Nation.co.ke
Nation Media Group is the most valuable media company in the country. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that their site also ranks as the most valuable website in Kenya.
Originally, Nation focused on news updates to generate their content but with increased competition in the blogosphere, they branched out to every imaginable topic in Kenya. Their high domain rank assures they get good organic traffic no matter what topic they write about.
The site is valued at a crazy Ksh 194 million and gets 10.1 million visitors monthly who earn it Ksh 2.66 million. It’s ranked 1174 in the world, the highest rank for a Kenyan based website.
I see there is money in the news .Gotta be there
That’s one of the hardest niches because you must consistently publish news daily to keep afloat.
nice