X-News
 | |
Type of site | Student News Blog |
|---|---|
| Owner | Shoaib Khan, Casey Butt, Nabeel Ahmad |
| Website | www.xnews.pk |
| Alexa rank |
 16,887,201 (April 2014)[1] |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 16 April 2009 |
X-news! (pronounced, "ex news") is a Pakistani website that collects blogs from different universities. As of August, 2016, its Web URL does not appear to be working, although Xnews Facebook pages for individual schools are active.
X-news! is primarily SMS-based information passing service and has a SMS reach of more than one thousand university students, faculty and staff. X-news! web blog was nominated as Pakistan’s best educational blog in the “Pakistan National Blog Awards 2010”.[2]
History
X-news was launched on 18 April 2009 at Bahria University Islamabad Campus by three software engineering students Shoaib Khan, Casey Butt and Nabeel Ahmad.[3] This service was initially available only on cell phones as the news updates were sent as SMS alerts and within a month X-news website was launched. The website attracted a decent traffic and received good reviews not only from Bahrain's but from students of other universities and colleges nationwide. Meanwhile, the news subscriber grew at an exponential rate and in few months it became a brand name in the Campus! X-news was available on web and also on cell phones for free!
Logo
The X-news! logo is a capital roman "X" with news written in lower case. It changes for various holidays and to pay homage to Star Wars, classic video games, and geek culture in general, or in response to major discussion subjects within the site or major news stories.
X-news! SMS
X-news! SMS launched in 2009 is a daily news alert sent to the subscribers for free. This SMS is of maximum 3-TEXT length and carries the latest on-campus news. According to some reports, X-nes! SMS service has grown to more than ten thousand subscribers.
Expansion
X-news crossed a milestone in August 2009 when it expanded from Bahria University to the prestigious Ghulam Isa Khan Institute. Now X-news also covered GIKI hence its subscribers and the network expended. Another milestone was crossed in November 2009 when University of Central Punjab, Lahore joined the X-news network. By the end of November 2009, X-news network had expended to two provinces and three major universities in Pakistan! University of Central Punjab really appreciated the network and its student societies are closely working with the X-news team. After UCP, Pakistan's one of the biggest universities, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) joined the X-news network in November, 2009. In early 2010 X-news network expended to include International Islamic University Islamabad. X-news! co-founders have announced that this student network will be expanded to COMSATS, Islamabad and National College of Arts, Rawalpindi Campus by the end of current year.[4]
Acquisition
X-news was acquired by an educational consulting firm from Bolton for an undisclosed sum in 2013.
References
- ↑ "Xnews.pk Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ↑ "Pakistan's First National Blog Awards". blogawards.pk.
- ↑ "The Story of Three Bahrains". xnews.pk.
- ↑ "The X-news! Story". xnews.pk.