iflix 10 billion - YouTube on Crosshairs
YouTube should not take emerging markets for granted. The competition seems to be growing especially in paid contents. It may not really matter to YouTube since it will continue to serve adverts. But that does not mean that there is no opportunity cost: if people are watching iROKOtv and iflix, it means the people are not watching YouTube. So, Google has work to do there.
iflix, a leading entertainment service for emerging markets, has announced that it reached 10 billion minutes streamed across its platform in 2017. ...The achievement, equivalent to more than 19,000 years of content streamed, marks an incredible uptake in user engagement, with cumulative viewing minutes up well over 400% from three billion total minutes streamed at the end of 2016. iflix also maintains one of the highest active mobile viewing durations of any service globally, with an average of 2.5-2.75 hours per session. (iflix Press Release)
The message here is that emerging market including Africa likes relevant contents and entrepreneurs in this space should plan accordingly. Content is where localization becomes a great competitive advantage.