Jamii Forum
Jamii Forums is a Tanzania based social network. It was established as Jambo Forums in 2006. It operates under Jamii Forums Company Limited, which was incorporated in July, 2008.
According to Maxence Melo, co-founder and co-owner, Jamii Forums originated from Jambo Forums which comprised several online sub forums such as: Tanzania economic forums, Habari Tanzania, Uchaguzi Tanzania, Jambo network, Jambo radio and Jambo video.
The rational for establishing Jamii Forums, according to Melo, was to create a platform on which Tanzanian society could engage in free discussions about various emerging issues such as social, politics, economic and reports on breaking news.
According to a GeoPoll survey on online consumption commissioned by MCT, Jamii Forums is the number one news website with XX.XXX% audience share. According to Alexa Traffic, it ranks 5th amongst the social forums in the country (October, 2018). A report by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC)) states that the forum had more than 2.4 Million users, 28 Million mobile subscribers and up to 600,000 people using its online forum daily in August 2017.
Jamii Forums’ content cover general news and room for discussing various issues such as social, economic, political, sports and entertainment issues. Apart from this blog, the news are on Google Play, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter @Jamii Forums as well as YouTube.
In June 2018, Jamii Forums was shut down as its owners missed the deadline to pay registration fees to the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) – which were due based on the new Online Content Regulation. According to this regulation, blog owners/ online platforms are mandated to pay up to Tshs. 2.1 Million, including Tshs. 1 Million for initial license fee prior to operate their forums. They are also required to reveal particulars of their shareholders, citizenship and share capital.
It also require bloggers and forums operators to register with the TCRA to ensure that comments submitted by blog readers, forum users are moderated be-fore they are published. They are also required to identify the source of content.
Melo explained the shut down to the media: "We have been targeted because our forum is a service provider and not content provider, so we have decided to shut it down because we don't' fit anywhere (in the online content regulations)".
In July, 2018 issued Online Content Services Licence to Jamii Forums and returned its service again upon compliance.
According to the companies own statements, the operating company is founded and owned by Maxence Melo Mubyazi (51%) and Mike Mushi (49%).
Audience Share
Ownership Type
private
Geographic Coverage
International
Content Type
Free content
Media Companies / Groups
Jamii Media Co. Limited
Ownership Structure
Jamii Forum is a registered Online Content Provder at TCRA. At TCRA, only Melo is mentioned as shareholder. On their own accounts, also Mushi holds the remaining shares,
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
Mike Mushi
co-founded Jamii Forum he was only 16 years old. He started managing the platform right after completing Green Acres Primary school in 2003. Today, he is Director as well as Head of Business Partnership and Marketing at Jamii Media. He persued a Bachelor degree in Business Administration with Information Technology at LearnIT from 2010 to 2013.
General Information
Founding Year
2nd July, 2008
Founder
Maxence Melo - holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engeneering and has worked for a construction company, before he co-founded Jamii Forums. He also is a digital activist who promote freedom of expression, digital security and freedom of informati
Ceo
Maxence Melo - see above.
Editor-In-Chief
No information about newsroom setup.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
Audience share based on GeoPoll survey (Aug 30 – Sep 1st, 2018), commissioned by MOM Tanzania. Social networks, search engines and advertising websites were excluded in the ownership analysis.
