Short but viral videos rule internet
With online content creation taking over the entertainment sector by storm, short video content have also won many netizens’ hearts as evidenced by the rising numbers of short video content platforms in Kenya. The number of content creators has likewise been on the rise during this era when any online user can produce content from anywhere, provided they have a good smartphone.
The platforms have become a river in which money flows, creating job opportunities for thousands of content creators, who have in turn become influencers and internet sensations. Talk of positivity! According to a 2021 report by DataReportal, there were 21.75 million internet users in Kenya, with an internet penetration rate of 40 per cent. Year 2021 was a great period for the short video content creators, but industry players say 2022 is going to be even greater.
Just recently, YouTube introduced ‘YouTube Shorts’, the company’s new short-form video experience for creating short, catchy videos using mobile devices. This was to catch up with the heavy competition from more popular short video content platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, Vskit, among others.
During its launch in Kenya in July 2021, YouTube Shorts global product manager Todd Sherman said the platform had surpassed the global 6.5 billion-mark worth of daily views. With Shorts being a new way to watch and create on YouTube, the company has been looking at various ways to monetise it and reward creators for their content, including the recently announced YouTube Shorts Fund, a US$100 million (Sh10 billion) fund distributed throughout 2021-2022.
“Creators can receive up to US$10,000 (Sh1.1 million) based on viewership and engagement of their Shorts content. To qualify, channels must meet the minimum eligibility requirements refreshed each month to give other creators the opportunity to receive a reward for their creative and unique Shorts,” he said.
More entrants
In the same year, giant telecom Safaricom came up with Baze, a subscription-based mobile-first, Video On Demand (VOD) service that offers a wide selection of local and regional short-form videos in comedy, drama, faith, music, sports, lifestyle, and wildlife.
Baze lead innovator Fawziah Ali says the platform is placing the entertainment Kenyans want at their fingertips, while being amongst the first platforms to provide local content creators with an additional platform to share their stories and earn through it.
“We started the project in August 2020. We have a cross-functional team of over 25 people who have been contributing to content operations, product development, customer experience, platform management, legal, brand experience, public relations, marketing and communication. Additionally, content aggregators are key as they acquire the content and deliver it to the platform,” she tells Spice.
She adds that Safaricom has had a strategy to deliver video content to its customers for a few years, informed by its customers’ changing behaviour. “More time is spent on mobile phones. Short-form content becomes key as consumers are on a commute or taking a break. This is key as it gives our customers a reason to use our mobile data and the fixed network,” she says.
With copyright issues plaguing YouTube and its community for years now, most content creators have been in low spirits since they never earn whenever their content faces copyright strikes. Numerous local artistes have found themselves among the victims and confusion over how copyright claims work exactly. However, Baze has looked into such grievances by setting up strict measures for the content creators including providing copies of licenses to show that it has obtained the requisite licenses to the content including the rights to distribute.
“The creators also provide a copy of Content Service Provider License from Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK), content rating approval from Kenya Films Board, certificate of incorporation and documents evidencing the company’s obligations to pay tax in its jurisdiction,” says Fawziah.
She adds, “The content creators will earn 60 per cent of the revenue earned based on the watch time of their content. Further to provide a platform for content creators to engage, learn and be inspired, we launched the Baze Content Garage, a platform that allows for knowledge sharing and conversation on all matters of content. The engagements take place monthly on our Safaricom social media channels.”
The celebrity culture
Vskit, one of the most popular short video apps in the country and the continent, has experienced tremendous growth since its inception in 2018, with more than 30 million active users in Africa currently. David Mwawasi, the app’s marketing manager says its reception in Kenya was special, owing to the allure of fame and celebrity culture that is now within the reach of anyone with a talent to showcase and smartphone to shoot.
“Kenya has a vibrant local pop culture and a big number of youths who are eager to showcase the Kenyan unique culture. Short videos provide the perfect medium of expression for the Kenyan youth and even some “senior citizens” to communicate and share this culture with each other and the rest of the world,” he appends.
With the surge in short video platforms, David says that what makes Vskit stand out is having an intense focus on content localisation. “We pride ourselves on having built a community relationship that promotes a feedback loop between creator and consumer, which is an integral part of our iterative growth process and helps us provide culturally relevant content that is tapped into the ever-evolving local mainstream zeitgeist,” he says.
He adds: “The opportunities within Vskit are endless, but the one that our content creators find the most value from is utilising Vskit to increase their visibility and gain access to corporate advertisers who are seeking such content creators to provide professionally generated content apropos to their young demographic.”
Boomplay’s Camilla Owora says short video content platforms have played a big part in their audio content by promoting the music they have on their platforms. In 2021, Boomplay recorded a milestone figure of 65 million songs, 5.6 million artistes and 60 million active users by October.
She says, “As Boomplay, we often synergise with influencers who curate content for some of our artiste promotions. The emergence of short videos as a form of content promotion rose significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most content creators used the platforms to get creative when lockdown measures were imposed around the globe. We have to be cognizant of the fact that the human attention span is eight seconds; so being able to capture the audience’s attention within that time frame is key.
“Secondly, the cost of data in Kenya is still at an all-time high, so many internet users want to consume the content quickly, as opposed to spending a lot of time online. It is also a fun and interactive way of engaging with audiences, with the ability to curate content that is diverse.”
Camilla opines that the short video content industry will thrive more than it is now as there has been a lot of appreciation for homegrown content. However, she believes that there are a lot of opportunities for it to grow even further.
Creation spaces
The content creation in Kenya has also received a boost from diverse organisations with the most recent one being Kofisi, a media centre in Westlands, Nairobi. It has a broadcast and podcasting studio to cater for Nairobi’s content creators, media businesses and influencers.
“When we first opened Kofisi Riverside and Kofisi Karen, everyone loved the interior design and our members used our spaces for filming because they made great backdrops for TV interviews and headshots. Our spaces are visually unique and spacious, able to accommodate crews of all sizes. Inquiries started coming in from influencers, broadcasters and content creators, looking to book our spaces to make their own visually engaging content,” says Michael Aldridge, Kofisi co-founder and CEO.
In terms of specialist services for content creation, the digital age has ushered in the acceleration of digital content creation in an unprecedented way. This has forced companies to rethink how they market their goods and services to their target market.
“Increasingly, firms are using content creators and social media influencers to inform potential and existing customers about their products and services. With this in mind, Kofisi created a ‘media space’ dedicated to content creation in the heart of Nairobi, with two fully equipped podcast and TV studios that allows content creators and businesses to produce functional, consumer-driven and diverse content,” asserts Michael.
He adds that during the pandemic, the demand for digital and online content increased exponentially with podcasting, blogging, vlogging, YouTubing and short video content creation becoming an essential and cost-effective marketing tool for most businesses. He says the reach via these means outstrips other forms of communication.
“Whether you’re working as part of a marketing group or as an individual, creating unique, engaging content is essential to building and sustaining any business, and the ecosystem of tech to support content creation has never been larger. Even as individuals, the arrival of smartphones allows everyone to make their own content. You can create reels and be a TV producer, take photos and call yourself a photographer, you can be a music producer, start a blog and be a writer or record a podcast from your phone. As technology becomes more advanced, the industry is only going to get more sophisticated with more people wanting to get on board and we want to be there to support that,” he says in conclusion.
