Rival Industrial buys Bundublog

(SANEPR.com) March 30, 2009 -- Niche market industrial publishing company Rival Industrial has purchased local blogging platform Bundublog effective 1 April 2009.

Bundublog is a South African focused free blogging community with around 130 active blogs with bloggers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria. Currently the site enjoys about 8000 unique visitors each month.

Rival Industrial owns stakes in niche market industrial titles including ManufacturingHub.co.za and Ferronews.com as well as remedial and special education website RemSpecED.

Marc Ashton speaking on behalf of Rival Industrial said: "The transaction serves two purposes for us - firstly it allows us to aggregate some of our niche content to a wider audience which helps us generate advertising revenue and secondly it ties in with our longer term strategy of developing an audience for syndicated internet radio content."

According to Ashton, more and more South Africans are taking to blogging.

He said: "Every day new blogs are being added to the aggregators, small businesses who can't afford a web presence are suddenly being given a free tool through which to market themselves and ordinary citizens on the ground in places like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria are able to connect with the world and give us real-time feedback of events on the ground - it's seriously powerful if we can find ways to harness it correctly."

While the site will continue to focus on Africa, some changes are also planned to build the Bundublog experience including:

- Development of podcasts from bloggers
- Music platform for upstart South African bands to promote their talent
- A science and technology platform, in conjunction with ManufacturingHub.co.za aimed at skills development in this sector

Ashton concludes: "We're excited about the opportunity we've been presented by taking over Bundublog and we look forward to welcoming a whole host of new bloggers to the platform."

About the company
Rival Industrial is a Gauteng based corporate wellness, industrial research and publishing investment company.

The company holds stakes in ManufacturingHub.co.za - an online publication aimed at the South African food, pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic manufacturing industries - as well as Ferronews.com which provides information on the ferrous metal industries in Africa.

Other investments include RemSpecED, a remedial and special education portal aimed at parents, teachers and therapists.

For further information
Tel: 082-561-1585
E-mail: webmaster@rival.co.za
www.rival.co.za
http://bundublog.com/