Bloomberg Media launches Africa edition

Bloomberg has announced the launch of Bloomberg.com/Africa, a regional edition of Bloomberg’s flagship digital destination designed to serve the continent’s growing audience of business and financial professionals.

Bloomberg Media CEO, Justin Smith unveiled the new edition at the second Bloomberg ‘Africa Business Media Innovators’ (ABMI) forum in Naivasha, Kenya, which convened media, technology and business influencers from 11 countries, including nine African nations to explore the role business and financial journalism plays in bringing accountability, transparency and investment to African economies.

“Bloomberg.com/Africa will combine the resources of Bloomberg’s more than 100-strong editorial team across seven bureaus in Africa, as well as Bloomberg’s global team of over 2,600 reporters and analysts.

It is the latest in a series of regionallyfocused editorial platforms built to serve the growing audience of business and financial consumers seeking stories on global markets told through a local lens,” Smith said in a statement.

Speaking at ABMI 2016, Smith said: “Our mission is to build the leading multiplatform global business and financial media company and delivering more relevant stories to our global audiences via localised platforms is central to our strategy.

Bloomberg.com/Africa will be powered by Javelin, Bloomberg Digital’s new article and template design that was unveiled recently with the launch of Bloomberg Technology. Javelin provides a significantly improved user experience, reducing page load time, which is critical in delivering a faster mobile experience for a largely mobile-driven African audience. Bloomberg.com has seen impressive growth in the region in mobile - in the last three months, the site has seen +23% growth in mobile unique visitors compared to the same period last year.

The best of the new edition's content will be fed to a dedicated Africa Twitter handle @BBGAfrica. Bloomberg will continue to explore the addition of Africa-specific products to expand its reach to this important growing economy, and where appropriate, seek partners to help scale Bloomberg’s reach across the continent.

Bloomberg has accelerated its global expansion in 2016. The company will continue to leverage its multi-platform distribution, strong global brand, technological assets and editorial resources around the world to grow aggressively in 2017. In 2016, Bloomberg Media’s total revenue year-to-date through September is up +8% compared to the same time period last year.