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For the large majority of Africans, Internet = Social media + YouTube because telcos have hugely subsidized access to social media at the expense of expensive d

For the large majority of Africans, Internet = Social media + YouTube because telcos have hugely subsidized access to social media at the expense of expensive data rate for everything else. So building anything outside of this wall, is a herculean task. Also when he says African, I'm sure he meant Nigerian. Building an African product would require millions of dollars to even get it off the ground. Fragmentation of culture, language and even payment systems means you have a lot more work to do than a Westerner pursuing a similar project. This project didn't really even kick off, I'm sure. With a curation of under 100 films, no one is really going to pay for it. The founder would have been better off creating content for YouTube and promote his channel on both Youtube and Facebook. That way, with the release of any new content, you have an active subscriber base you may count on because there is no way to charge for this really. And there is nothing wrong with earning from YT ads till you figure your business model out. If you choose a subscription model for your African video streaming site, you either charge too low, which still makes losses or too high which matches the likes of Netflix and even above irokotv.com, which is arguably the largest video streaming site on the continent. Building an true African startup is hard.

Shorel 8y ago
> The founder would have been better off creating content for YouTube And being demonetized by DMCA strikes from random companies? Youtube is hardly a suitable solution in the long term.
- festivilia 8y ago
  Hi. This is Tobi Cofounder of Hubrif. Well, you have a point but honestly, we think building the platform at the earliest stage using the already solid foundation of YouTube would have been a better business sense. This is because we would have saved a ton of our cash on other avenues as to how to grow the platform most especially marketing, instead, we spent all those money on independent cloud storage for the contents. In the long run, you are right by saying it wasn't a suitable solution but in the short run, it would have worked out fine for us while we figure out our long term strategy. Considering the fact that this was the exact same strategy Irokotv used to become who they are now. They started with a YouTube channel and after gaining enough loyal subscriber base, they then built an independent platform today they are what they are.
festivilia 8y ago
Hi! This is Tobi Cofounder of the now defunct Hubrif. Thank you for your critical analysis. When you said we would have been better off creating contents for YouTube and growing our subscriber base, well you are very right. we realised this too late. Thinking about it now, I usually ask myself what I was thinking then.. lol my mentality then was that we never wanted to have anything to do with YouTube. So setting up a channel didn't even come to mind. We just wanted to build an independent platform from the ground up and we regretted too late.

Shorel 8y ago

> The founder would have been better off creating content for YouTube And being demonetized by DMCA strikes from random companies? Youtube is hardly a suitable solution in the long term.

festivilia 8y ago
Hi. This is Tobi Cofounder of Hubrif. Well, you have a point but honestly, we think building the platform at the earliest stage using the already solid foundation of YouTube would have been a better business sense. This is because we would have saved a ton of our cash on other avenues as to how to grow the platform most especially marketing, instead, we spent all those money on independent cloud storage for the contents. In the long run, you are right by saying it wasn't a suitable solution but in the short run, it would have worked out fine for us while we figure out our long term strategy. Considering the fact that this was the exact same strategy Irokotv used to become who they are now. They started with a YouTube channel and after gaining enough loyal subscriber base, they then built an independent platform today they are what they are.

festivilia 8y ago

Hi! This is Tobi Cofounder of the now defunct Hubrif. Thank you for your critical analysis. When you said we would have been better off creating contents for YouTube and growing our subscriber base, well you are very right. we realised this too late. Thinking about it now, I usually ask myself what I was thinking then.. lol my mentality then was that we never wanted to have anything to do with YouTube. So setting up a channel didn't even come to mind. We just wanted to build an independent platform from the ground up and we regretted too late.