Microsoft to Officially Launch MSN Portal in Nigeria September 3rd

Microsoft Nigeria is on top of plans to officially launch its flagship MSN portal for Nigeria.

The portal, although already live is scheduled to be commissioned early September, 2013.

The MSN homepage features the trademark dedicated to Nigerian news, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and celeb gists, local weather as well as links to other Microsoft-related services such as Bing, Outlook and Skype.

While the site looks like its South African counterpart, Howzit MSN which is the third largest online portal in South Africa after Naspers-owned News24 and IOL, according to DMMA, MSN Nigeria seems to be taking a cue from Yahoo!’s South Africa portal launched in late 2011 which syndicates South African-specific news from leading publishers such as Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian, AFP, Association Press and Reuters.

Already, MSN Nigeria syndicates local news in Nigeria from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), as well as publishers such as BangShowbiz.

It also features dedicated pages for news (national, African and world news), sport (local and world sport news), entertainment (local and global celebrity entertainment news) and lifestyle (including fashion, travel, tech & gadgets, motoring).

With its content offering expected to grow further, the online portal has already teamed up with South African ad network, Ad Dynamo to help advertisers and brands with exposure.

The deal sees Ad Dynamo serving contextual advertising on Microsoft’s network of sites, including Windows Live Hotmail with over 800,000 users in Nigeria and Windows Messenger with over 820,000 active users in Nigeria as at October 2012.

The MSN Nigeria online portal is also accessible via MSN.com which redirects to the new online portal for Nigeria (ng.msn.com). MSN Nigeria is also available via Facebook and Twitter.

Microsoft promises users a biffed up current and interesting features on the portal.