President Goodluck Jonathan has put aside R1.4 billion (US $211 million) to develop Nollywood‘s production and infrastructure capabilities. Currently, the Nigerian movie industry – worth upwards of US$500 million – contributes R3.5 billion (US $528 million) to Nigeria’s GDP.

Amazingly, Nigeria produces over 1,000 movies annually and the vast majority of films are released directly to the marketplace (rather than the theater). A competitive distribution network allows for not only large numbers of sales on release day, but also availability in rural areas.

Despite the prevalence of Nollywood movies there are few websites devoted solely to promotion, reviews, and even discussion. Most discussion appears to take place either on Facebook or on the main national forums. For reference, a quick search of Twitter yields roughly 10-20 Nollywood-related Tweets per hour.

Globally, the interest in Nollywood is up dramatically over the past year, at least according to Google Insights for Search:

Within Nigeria, however, Google searches for ‘Nollywood’ appear more stable. With these thoughts in mind, one must ask:

1. Why don’t Nigerian entrepreneurs create unique websites (databases, review sites, celebrity gossip sites) to capitalize on the growing industry?
2. Why don’t producers use guerrilla social media tactics to promote their films?

To some extent, there are websites devoted to Nollywood. However, most are either registered or run outside of Nigeria. Interestingly, two of the most popular Nollywood resources are located on Facebook and Blogspot. The largest, Nollywood by Mindspace, has an astounding 153,000 fans! Perhaps social media is in fact the answer to the question of why there are so few Nollywood sites. Do Nigerians need explicit websites if all Nollywood news can be relayed via Facebook?

The following list shows a breakdown of some of the largest sites.

Nigeria – registered

Nairaland TV/Movies:

• popular Nigerian forum
• 137,858 posts in 6,786 topics
• recently seen ~10 posts per day
• Nollywood and global threads
• domain registered in Nigeria
• http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/board-4.0.html

Nigeria Entertainment Industry:

• biographical database since 2003
• domain registered in Lagos, Nigeria
• http://www.nigeriaentertainment.com/

Nollywood Gossip:

• gossip and news
• ~100 visitors online at a given time
• run by Lurrenzinc, an entertainment network based in Nigeria
• http://www.nollywoodgossip.net/

Nigeria – operated

Nollywood by Mindspace:

• extremely popular movie, star, and lifestyle blog
• active comments
• over 153,000 Facebook fans
• 4,600+ Twitter followers
• http://nollywoodmindspace.blogspot.com/

Nollywood Facebook Community:

• 1-3 daily posts
• over 3,500 Facebook fans
• http://www.facebook.com/nollywoodfb

Nollywood.net:

• forums, videos, and images
• 1,212 threads / 6,467 posts
• domain registered in New Jersey, USA
• http://www.nollywood.net/

Nollywood.com:

• movie trailers
• small community
• domain registered in Washington, USA
• http://www.nollywood.com/

Naijarules:

• popular Nigerian forum
• Nollywood section has 30,445 posts & 1,465 threads
• sub-categories for Hausa and Igbo movies
• domain registered in New Jersey, USA (same as Nollywood.net)
• http://www.naijarules.com/

Nollywood Uncut:

• blog format of news, reviews, and interviews
• domain registered in London, United Kingdom
• http://www.nollywooduncut.com/

Nollywood Watch:

• news blog
• hasn’t been updated since March 2011
• domain registered in London, United Kingdom
• http://www.nollywoodwatch.com/

Non-Nigerian operated

NollywoodLove & YouTube Channel:

• licensed partnership with YouTube
• 1,027,000+ views since 2010
• 19,395 subscribers
• based in United Kingdom
• http://nollywoodlove.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/nollywoodlove

Nollywood Forever Movie Reviews:

• Nigerian & Ghanaian movies
• handful of weekly reviews
• runs on WordPress
• active commenters
• based in U.K.
• 1,365 Twitter followers
• http://nollywoodforever.com/

NigeriaFiles.com:

• general news & information
• managed by firm in Holland
• 1,081 Twitter followers
• http://www.nigeriafilms.com/

Nollywood Files, Movies, and Events:

• legal  e-commerce site owned by filmmakers
• based in Bronx, New York
• http://www.nollywoodmovies.com/