GhanaWeb | |
Commercial: | Yes |
Type: | General news and information |
Registration: | Optional |
Language: | English |
Owner: | Bellaart Investments B.V. |
Launch Date: | [1] |
Current Status: | Online |
GhanaWeb, founded as GhanaHomePage, is a Ghananian portal, content curation and syndication website covering news, politics, business, sports, entertainment, opinions and general information about Ghana. It was launched by GhanaWeb B.V., a privately-owned Dutch company in 1999.[2] It also offers background information, classifieds, radio stations and a social network for Ghanaians and the Diaspora.[3] [4]
GhanaWeb is owned by Bellaart Investments B.V.[5] It has evolved over the years to include video content (GhanaWeb TV)[6] and social media components as well as a mobile app (GhanaWeb Reporter).[7]
Ghanaweb.com began in 1992 by Akoto Francis as GhanaHomePage.[8] It was a print magazine serving the growing Ghanaian community in Amsterdam by collating news stories from Ghanaian newspapers.
In 1999, the website was renamed as GhanaWeb.[8] [9] - a blog on the domain of the University of Uta in Finland - which was conceived in the early nineties by a Ghanaian lecturer working in Finland.[10] GhanaWeb.com/GhanaHomePage featured links to news, sports, announcements, chat rooms,[11] a Ghanaian dictionary and many other resources. News stories from Ghana were republished from different sources and mailing lists from magazines.
GhanaWeb has currently evolved from a news aggregator to a producer of original content. It also has a mobile app. In 2020, it won the first Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge[7] for its GhanaWeb Reporter project.
In February 2020, GhanaWeb was the only Ghanaian media company to receive funding from Google (Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation[7]) to enable the media company to thrive in a digital era and expand its projects.[12]
In July 2020, GhanaWeb partnered with Africa Consumer Pane, a cooperative effort between the digital publisher Africa Business Communities and market research firm MSI-ACI, to launch the Ghana Election Polls, conducted monthly to enable citizens express their opinions and projections of the 2020 elections.[13]