The launch of Linda Ikeji's very own social networking website - Linda Ikeji Social - almost broke the Nigerian internet on Tuesday.

Bearing a remarkable resemblance to Facebook, Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) allows users to create a profile, post pictures, include and look for pals, in addition to share what's on their mind.

The long term strategy for LIS, expecting the execution is perfect, will be to rival Facebook in Nigeria. Naturally it is a burden, however it is not likely anyone will wager versus Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) pulling it off all the exact same.

Even tech 'heads' who (ostensibly) understand much better hesitate to prophesy doom for Linda Ikeji Social.

- ִ (@xylemic) November 1, 2016

LIS is providing rewards consisting of shared advertisement earnings and $3 benefits per initial user-sourced news to catalyse engagement.

According to Linda Ikeji:

"There's a great deal of cash from advertising on social media, a lot of brand names put money on popular online platforms and we wish to share some of the cash we make on this platform with our users,"

The technique seems extremely efficient. Barely 48 hours after it initially released, the platform currently lays claim to over 50,000 users and counting.

Almost 50k users on LIS in 24hrs. Chuffed! Thanks guys! If you haven't registered, please join us on https://t.co/7vKviiDjzG

- Linda Ikeji Blog (@lindaikeji) November 2, 2016

And from all indications, the majority of these users are not just small, they're rather active.

Why Linda Ikeji Social may pull through

In all this, Linda Ikeji is not resting on her oars. She has currently begun mounting massive billboard campaigns to generate interest and awareness around LIS.

Besides, if there's something we've found out from the whole story of Linda Ikeji, it's not to undervalue her audience. With an audience that is mostly driven by selfless love for the renowned blog writer, Linda appears to have acquired a set of follower to her course. While Linda Ikeji's Blog (LIB) has actually thrived for nearly a years for this factor, the shared income technique will only serve to include new sets of loyalist to this same course.

However, running a social networking platform needs heavy investment in tech. This includes putting together a team of world class engineers to keep an eye on the platform on a daily basis. The site went offline briefly, hardly 2 hours after in introduced on Tuesday. Following that was an extended duration of over 12 hours where early adopters were unable to trigger or login to their accounts. These are indications of how things could fail if the tech side isn't accorded due value.

No doubt, LIS is still far from an ended up product. The website still needs a lot of enhancement in the location of functionality and engagement.

For example, Facebook algorithms are so effective that they can dictate the tone of one's feed; either by making sure that the feeds include only the important things specific to the user or by creating special features that keep such user completely engaged. This is presently doing not have in LIS. But then again, Linda Ikeji's financially incentivised approach to user engagement might well show effective in the long run.

I keep informing these "intellectual" to study the Linda Effect as a part of modern social sociology. https://t.co/q3xJzW5NDU

- Funmi Iyanda (@Funmilola) November 1, 2016

The media company twist

Indeed, LIS does take the mould of a social networking website. However, its true nature still remains evasive. While the failure to anticipate the true kind of LIS is a bit worrying, it also what makes it distinct maybe.

In August, Linda Ikeji revealed she would be broadening her service to consist of other kinds of media like online TV network, an online radio station, a music website, and something else she called "LIS." Even so, the gesture was praised. But genuinely, everyone was unaware about how this was going to happen.

But somehow, LIS mentions Linda's lofty intent and how she was going to bring them to fruition. Still at its early days, it stays to be seen what LIS will progress into, however there's every possibility that it will be a parent platform to Linda Ikeji's growing army of subsidiary business; allowing her to integrate all of these functions in one single platform.

Being that the case, the possible stream of untapped wealth this will open up for Linda Ikeji is really frightening. In all of this, one wonders if LIB might well end up as her least engaging platform.

While Linda Ikeji specified clearly her intent to handle Facebook in Nigeria, the practicality of that stays to be seen. For all we know, Facebook hosts a meagre 18 countless Nigeria's 97 million strong web population. There simply might be adequate space for both of them.