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Is this targeting the indie filmmaker market? How big is that market in Africa? What other markets could you expand to with the same technology? Or is this lik

by buss 11y ago

Is this targeting the indie filmmaker market? How big is that market in Africa? What other markets could you expand to with the same technology? Or is this like an African-focused YouTube targeting amateurs? How is adoption of video sharing sites in Africa?

hubrif 11y ago
Thanks for the comment. Yes, It is targeted at indie filmmakers. However, i should add that its a curated site dedicated to bringing the best short films in African or made by Africans in terms of picture quality and story-line. This means that not all films submitted to hubrif gets accepted to be hosted on the platform. We are also looking at partnering with African film festivals all over the world too to host a curated selection of films for an online audience. The first of this partnership is with the maiden edition of Kampala Short Film Festival. the official hubrif channel of the festival will soon go live on the platform. We want to sorely focus on African theme short films for now. I wont say its an African-focused YouTube thing, We want to solve the problem which YouTube cant solve in terms of making African short films easily discovered. lastly, the adoption of video sharing sites in Africa is expanding rapidly and we believe this is the right time for hubrif to be born especially with the fact that short films in Africa are being taken seriously now.
- ryporter 11y ago
  Why can't YouTube make African short films easily discovered? They have lots of data about their users, including location and past viewing history.
  - hubrif 11y ago
    That is a question that i have asked myself a million times in the past. since there is no solution, my team and I decide to find a solution to our own problem. The truth is YouTube has just generally evolved to support personal comedy clips and cat videos. Short films are relegated to the back and given little attention.
    - pjlegato 11y ago
      Why not just make your own African short films YouTube channel and promote it?
      - hubrif 10y ago
        There are a couple of short films channels on youtube and we just dont want to be another shortfilm channel on the platform. We believe having a separate entity platform will make it easier for the world to find us with rigorious marketing in the long run. The whoe idea is that youtube remains d site to go to to watch other video contents while Hubrif be the site to go to to watch African short films
ryporter 11y ago
These are excellent questions. To follow up on the last one, is the network infrastructure in Africa even capable of allowing you to achieve YouTube-style growth? What specific advantages does your technology have in the African market? Should this just be a website for the community, with all videos hosted on services like YouTube?
- hubrif 11y ago
  Let me start by saying, our network infrastructure is located in Canada, this is because, to be honest Africa is still lacking behind in terms of world class network infrastructure for tech startups. So our servers is in Canada and every tech related issue is run from there. Our other office in Nigeria deals with the administrative works of the platform. However, I believe hubrif can scale through in the long run. We might not achieve a YouTube-style growth now but we believe its gonna be huge in the long run. If you want to watch any other video contents, then YouTube is the place for you but if you want to watch African short films, then hubrif is the first place your mind shoould go to. This is the vision of hubrif! Like i said, the ultimate advantage the technology have in the African market is the seamless and easy accessibility to high quality African short films like never before. Just visit the site and select films from our various categories and start watching. I should also add that hubrif does not embed videos from other sites, we host the videos on our own servers and stream them to you without advertisement. We are also looking at helping the filmmakers monetize their films through a unique model (which will be unveiled soon)while still making sure that visitors are not irritated by constantly skipping ads before they can enjoy a film. But for now, we are focus on just making sure we build that 'hub' or home for African short films.
  - ejanus 10y ago
    >network infrastructure is located in Canada So your aim is to make money off Africans without them getting any form of technological skills(let me not talk of employment). This type of business structure is what is keeping African down. What about speed of your network to African customers?
    - 10y ago

by buss 11y ago

hubrif 11y ago

Thanks for the comment. Yes, It is targeted at indie filmmakers. However, i should add that its a curated site dedicated to bringing the best short films in African or made by Africans in terms of picture quality and story-line. This means that not all films submitted to hubrif gets accepted to be hosted on the platform. We are also looking at partnering with African film festivals all over the world too to host a curated selection of films for an online audience. The first of this partnership is with the maiden edition of Kampala Short Film Festival. the official hubrif channel of the festival will soon go live on the platform. We want to sorely focus on African theme short films for now. I wont say its an African-focused YouTube thing, We want to solve the problem which YouTube cant solve in terms of making African short films easily discovered. lastly, the adoption of video sharing sites in Africa is expanding rapidly and we believe this is the right time for hubrif to be born especially with the fact that short films in Africa are being taken seriously now.

ryporter 11y ago
Why can't YouTube make African short films easily discovered? They have lots of data about their users, including location and past viewing history.
- hubrif 11y ago
  That is a question that i have asked myself a million times in the past. since there is no solution, my team and I decide to find a solution to our own problem. The truth is YouTube has just generally evolved to support personal comedy clips and cat videos. Short films are relegated to the back and given little attention.
  - pjlegato 11y ago
    Why not just make your own African short films YouTube channel and promote it?
    - hubrif 10y ago
      There are a couple of short films channels on youtube and we just dont want to be another shortfilm channel on the platform. We believe having a separate entity platform will make it easier for the world to find us with rigorious marketing in the long run. The whoe idea is that youtube remains d site to go to to watch other video contents while Hubrif be the site to go to to watch African short films

ryporter 11y ago

These are excellent questions. To follow up on the last one, is the network infrastructure in Africa even capable of allowing you to achieve YouTube-style growth? What specific advantages does your technology have in the African market? Should this just be a website for the community, with all videos hosted on services like YouTube?

hubrif 11y ago
Let me start by saying, our network infrastructure is located in Canada, this is because, to be honest Africa is still lacking behind in terms of world class network infrastructure for tech startups. So our servers is in Canada and every tech related issue is run from there. Our other office in Nigeria deals with the administrative works of the platform. However, I believe hubrif can scale through in the long run. We might not achieve a YouTube-style growth now but we believe its gonna be huge in the long run. If you want to watch any other video contents, then YouTube is the place for you but if you want to watch African short films, then hubrif is the first place your mind shoould go to. This is the vision of hubrif! Like i said, the ultimate advantage the technology have in the African market is the seamless and easy accessibility to high quality African short films like never before. Just visit the site and select films from our various categories and start watching. I should also add that hubrif does not embed videos from other sites, we host the videos on our own servers and stream them to you without advertisement. We are also looking at helping the filmmakers monetize their films through a unique model (which will be unveiled soon)while still making sure that visitors are not irritated by constantly skipping ads before they can enjoy a film. But for now, we are focus on just making sure we build that 'hub' or home for African short films.
- ejanus 10y ago
  >network infrastructure is located in Canada So your aim is to make money off Africans without them getting any form of technological skills(let me not talk of employment). This type of business structure is what is keeping African down. What about speed of your network to African customers?
  - 10y ago