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LequteMan
Guest
According to Jason Njoku, Netflix coming to Nigeria and other African countries will have no impact on his startup IrokoTV.
Explaining on his blog on Thursday, Njoku explained that Netflix and iROKO are different sides of the Video On Demand coin. According to him, iROKO is not Netflix. “Irokotv is irokotv,” he said.
"People fail to remember that Netflix is an 18 year old company. 18 years they have been refining their skills at getting people to subscribe for content. They are just awesome at it. But Africa is a little different.
"What iROKO is, and has largely always been known for, is the home of Nollywood. Home and abroad. The strange thing about the mourners of iROKO is they always mention how most of our subscribers are in the West.
"Yup US and UK represent ~55% of our subscription base. And it’s grown (not break-neck) but steadily over the last few years, in Netflix’s back yard. Folk in the US and UK ( the top 2 Netflix markets) have been happy to pay YoY for the little service we provide.Building subscription business’ are hard.
"Heck we are only 4 years old. So why people think we will suddenly die now they are in Nigeria is totally beyond me. I remember when Deezer came to Nigeria (and Africa). I have been a subscriber there for almost 3 years. I use it, without fail, daily. But when they released their IPO documents, Africa wasn’t even mentioned. It represented nothing. And thats 3mb mp3 files. Not 300mb movie files which require a continuous connection for streaming. But Netflix is in Africa!
Related: Netflix Now in Nigeria
"In 2015, across our YouTube channels, we saw 313m streaming video views. 185m of that was largely long form 2nd tier Nollywood content. What % was Nigeria? ~6%. And it’s free. YouTube = Free To Air Internet. Nigeria has consistently seen around 50% less engagement in Africa than comparable markets in Western Europe. Today streaming is just difficult. I have no doubt it will get better. But it’s not today. The ISPs have improved immensely, but of the tens of millions of internet users, 99% are mobile. Remember Nigeria is the most mobilised country in the world and the average person buys 105mb. The ISPs cater to the 0.5%. Around 7 months ago, we actually started adjusting our product, pricing and content around these cold hard realities.
"So Netflix being in Nigeria has zero impact on iROKO and our vision for the future. If it’s Nollywood fanatics, you know those guys can watch 3-5 hours per day, so Irokotv is still the only place they can find most of what they are looking for. Considering we are one of the biggest actual producers of Nollywood, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. In time, we will be able to produce 200 movies a year ourselves, no shaking. And with the evident collapse of the DVDmarket, this only makes us stronger.
Explaining on his blog on Thursday, Njoku explained that Netflix and iROKO are different sides of the Video On Demand coin. According to him, iROKO is not Netflix. “Irokotv is irokotv,” he said.
"People fail to remember that Netflix is an 18 year old company. 18 years they have been refining their skills at getting people to subscribe for content. They are just awesome at it. But Africa is a little different.
"What iROKO is, and has largely always been known for, is the home of Nollywood. Home and abroad. The strange thing about the mourners of iROKO is they always mention how most of our subscribers are in the West.
"Yup US and UK represent ~55% of our subscription base. And it’s grown (not break-neck) but steadily over the last few years, in Netflix’s back yard. Folk in the US and UK ( the top 2 Netflix markets) have been happy to pay YoY for the little service we provide.Building subscription business’ are hard.
"Heck we are only 4 years old. So why people think we will suddenly die now they are in Nigeria is totally beyond me. I remember when Deezer came to Nigeria (and Africa). I have been a subscriber there for almost 3 years. I use it, without fail, daily. But when they released their IPO documents, Africa wasn’t even mentioned. It represented nothing. And thats 3mb mp3 files. Not 300mb movie files which require a continuous connection for streaming. But Netflix is in Africa!
Related: Netflix Now in Nigeria
"In 2015, across our YouTube channels, we saw 313m streaming video views. 185m of that was largely long form 2nd tier Nollywood content. What % was Nigeria? ~6%. And it’s free. YouTube = Free To Air Internet. Nigeria has consistently seen around 50% less engagement in Africa than comparable markets in Western Europe. Today streaming is just difficult. I have no doubt it will get better. But it’s not today. The ISPs have improved immensely, but of the tens of millions of internet users, 99% are mobile. Remember Nigeria is the most mobilised country in the world and the average person buys 105mb. The ISPs cater to the 0.5%. Around 7 months ago, we actually started adjusting our product, pricing and content around these cold hard realities.
"So Netflix being in Nigeria has zero impact on iROKO and our vision for the future. If it’s Nollywood fanatics, you know those guys can watch 3-5 hours per day, so Irokotv is still the only place they can find most of what they are looking for. Considering we are one of the biggest actual producers of Nollywood, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. In time, we will be able to produce 200 movies a year ourselves, no shaking. And with the evident collapse of the DVDmarket, this only makes us stronger.
. But like you said 