Popular Kenyan blog Hivisasa has been closed. The blog, which attracts over 1.5 million readers monthly was closed after its AdSense account was disabled.
A statement from Hivisasa CEO read:
“Over the last six years, thousands of talented Hivisasa news writers have tirelessly reported on Kenya’s counties and national politics. Their work helped Hivisasa grow a steady audience of 2 million monthly readers, peaking at 6.1 million. The influence of the platform is demonstrated regularly by the social impact of its original county stories, which drive collective action and civic engagement.
Despite growing its audience and impact, Hivisasa has, like many other publishers globally, been unable to identify a viable advertisement-led business model. As a result, we have made the hard decision to close down the current model of local news production, in order to explore new ideas and opportunities. A special thank you to our brilliant and dedicated team, and to our loyal readers”
One of the reasons the blog lost revenue is because it was posting gambling content. Google sent them numerous warnings which were not looked into by editors of the site. Eventually, AdSense sent them a message of disabling the account.
Hivisasa had only one source of revenue, AdSense and since it was disabled, the owner had to close the business.