In Africa, digital real estate is an emerging market that has not been massively explored yet. It is a new concept that has been introduced to the internet space by entrepreneurs who saw a gap in the market and decided to venture into it.
In this article, we will examine what digital real estate is all about, how you can get involved, and where you can begin.
In the last decade, the entire world has been going digital. It started with the internet which gave everyone access to information from across the globe. It then went on to mobile phones that did a whole lot more than just making phone calls.
In recent years, we have seen how technology is playing a significant role in almost all facets of our lives. From banking to shopping and from marketing to even getting a job, everything has gone digital.
Growing up, my mother used native pot to save her money. Before, we used to cue up in the bank to open an account. But today, it is not the same anymore. With fintech companies, Loan apps like Renmoney, Carbon loan, etc, and digital banks like Kuda bank, the world is completely digital.
One of the most important sectors that are gradually going digital is real estate itself, especially buying and selling properties. And this is where Digital Real Estate in Nigeria comes in. Don’t get it wrong, shortly, I’ll tell you what digital real estate is all about and also how you, too, can invest in it and start cashing out big time in any part of the world.
What Is Digital Real Estate?
Digital real estate is the land of the web. It is everything that has to do with an online business. It includes websites, emails, blogs, videos, social media platforms, online products and services, and other platforms that are purely virtual but brings in a lot of return on investment for investors.
Digital real estate is an advertising term used to describe the amount of space that a business or company owns on the internet. Since most businesses depend on online marketing to grow their clientele, it’s safe to say that they own a good chunk of digital real estate. It refers to any web property that can be used for business purposes.
Digital Real Estate (DRE) is the property or assets that are involved in any digital or online business. It is the property or assets used by an organization to generate income.
What Is Digital Real Estate Examples
Take, for instance, a social media influencer with 500k followers. Such influencer owns digital real estate because brands can rent his/her space to advertise their products and services and pay anywhere from $1000 – $100,000.
Another good example is owning a website like Jumia, Konga, or Amazon where people actually create an account to start selling their products while you earn from when they sell their products. Also, a blogger who builds a blog and gets followers earns money too when companies advertise on their blogs or they can also leverage display advertising.
All these are all kinds of digital real estate and some of them don’t cost money to start. It’s as easy as signing up for a social media account. Whereas, some require a good start-up capital to build a good digital real estate business.
Who Are The Players In Digital Real Estate?
Some of the major players include bloggers, YouTubers, social media gurus, website developers, affiliate marketers, and many more. If you are wondering how they play a role in digital real estate in Nigeria, look at these few examples:
Bloggers are people who write about topics that interest them on their blogs. They mainly use their blogs as a place to share information about things they know will interest their readership. They also make money through advertisements placed on their sites and other monetization options.
Difference Between Traditional Real Estate And Digital Real Estate?
To fully understand the concept of Digital Real Estate, one must have some knowledge of traditional real estate. There are differences between them, however.
One notable difference is that traditional real estate is physical, while DRE is more intangible and virtual. Traditional real estate involves earthworks such as clearing of land, laying of roads, and installation of water supply, whereas digital real estate, does not require these activities for its existence. It only means a website, web, desktop, or mobile application or software, a social media page, or an email list.
Digital real estate is a term that was coined because of the widespread adoption of the internet as well as mobile devices. Just like real property that is occupied by businesses or residences, websites and apps offer space for people to use.
The difference is that digital property offers a wide array of possibilities for both business and personal use.
In other words, in traditional real estate (TRE), the landlord gets to receive rent from his tenants before allowing them access to his apartment.
In digital real estate (DRE), the website owner, and mobile app owner, such as Facebook gets to charge advertisers some fees to advertise on their app or websites. Such as when you pay Facebook to advertise your landed property, you’re like a tenant to Facebook compared to TRE.
Should You Get Involved In Digital Real Estate Business?
This is a question that has been well thought about by many without a clue of what the topic is all about but now that you’ve known what digital real estate is all about, it would be okay to say you truly can answer such.
The world’s richest millions are all great players in the digital real estate business. Bill Gates, the founder of a software giant company, is making great fortunes in digital real estate.
Mark Zuckerberg is also making waves with his social media digital assets, which include Facebook, Instagram, and the end-end encrypted messaging app, WhatsApp.
Jeff Bezos, also the founder and the executive chairperson of Amazon as a digital real estate, is among the top richest men in the entire world.
The list continues like that with Larry Ellison into software estates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin with Google, Steve Ballmer, and more.
You’ll realize that over 35% of the world’s richest entrepreneurs acquired their wealth in the digital real estate industry.
That is perhaps enough to decide if to invest in the digital real estate business in Nigeria since there are still very many untouched areas.
How To Invest In Digital Real Estate
Digital real estate investments are an emerging market that has the capacity to provide investors with huge returns on their investment, but how can you invest in digital real estate?
It is no surprise that digital real estate investments and assets are becoming more and more popular among investors and speculators. The current internet platform for this trend is the decentralized Ethereum blockchain system. This makes it easier for investors to use their cryptocurrency to invest in virtual real estate.
Elon Musk, who is dangling between 1st and 2nd richest man in the world, left Tesla and SpaceX at some time in 2020/2021 to invest over $30m in cryptocurrency as a digital estate and built his own coin, Dogecoin.
Your digital estate investment can come in the form of owning a website, building a mobile app, growing a social community, etc.
Why Digital Real Estate Now or Never?
Investing in Real Estate can be a very lucrative and profitable business, but it’s also very risky and costs a lot of startup capital that many don’t know how to go about doing it. But with digital real estate, you can be sure of the following;
- Low startup capital
- Low overhead costs
- Low management costs
- Easy to start
- High return on investment (ROI)
- It is Borderless
There is no safer market than the multi-million-dollar digital realty industry. Digital real estate can help you increase your income, whether you decide to build or buy a website.
