VIUSASA - a Kenyan Netflix?

[Nefertiti]

• Tweet

http://www.viusasa.com/

Nice video-on-demand app. 100K+ downloads. Requires subscription; it's a content aggregrator actually,  not a sharing app like YouTube. Is this a mistake? YouTube is a mass platform that relies on ad revenue sharing. Ads are the monetization for YouTube. It's strength is the number of viewers which determine the value customers are willing to buy to embed on the videos.

Viusasa and Showmax sell subscriptions - meaning their viewers are the revenue. This implies niche market, premium content and of course no ads. The issue here is that the niche market is limited in Kenya. It's the small field played by Netflix, MultiChoice, M-Net et al.

I believe the video-sharing model is ultimately stronger. The Kenyan broadcast channels are not a savvy enough competition for YouTube, who continue to dominate the mass market. Kenya has YouTubers galore.

[vooke]

I keep on seeing the ad and fo some reason my attention drifts halfway through the ad so I have never figured what it is.

Problem with these things is cost of internet not subscription fees. It is still prohibitive for many. To make use of these services you need at least speeds of 10MBps. Don't even think of any cellular plans...so it's fiber. But fiber penetration is way too low

I got a sneaky feeling that internet is overpriced with crazy profit margins but then again, there's healthy competition among ISPs without significant price wars so I may be wrong. Maybe it's just my wishful thinking.

[Dear Mami]

I keep on seeing the ad and fo some reason my attention drifts halfway through the ad so I have never figured what it is.

Problem with these things is cost of internet not subscription fees. It is still prohibitive for many. To make use of these services you need at least speeds of 10MBps. Don't even think of any cellular plans...so it's fiber. But fiber penetration is way too low

I got a sneaky feeling that internet is overpriced with crazy profit margins but then again, there's healthy competition among ISPs without significant price wars so I may be wrong. Maybe it's just my wishful thinking.

Kenyan internet is overpriced. In Europe I don't notice the cost of internet as it comes with the house/office etc. Watching those movies is a non-issue. Back home I'm always aware how much it is eating unless I'm in a house with fiber (which someone else is paying for).

[Nefertiti]

I keep on seeing the ad and fo some reason my attention drifts halfway through the ad so I have never figured what it is.

Problem with these things is cost of internet not subscription fees. It is still prohibitive for many. To make use of these services you need at least speeds of 10MBps. Don't even think of any cellular plans...so it's fiber. But fiber penetration is way too low

I got a sneaky feeling that internet is overpriced with crazy profit margins but then again, there's healthy competition among ISPs without significant price wars so I may be wrong. Maybe it's just my wishful thinking.

The ubiquity of the smartphone is the first hurdle that has sparked this. Cost of internet will plummet soon as satellite and simless tech is cracked. There will be a digital boom especially in entertainment. Most online stuff like gaming is out of reach for now. Even the social media in Kenya are lite version.

What excites me is that VIUSASA is Kenyan unlike SA Showmax and American Netflix, Hulu, etc. We need local competition to YouTube and other multimedia.

[vooke]

I keep on seeing the ad and fo some reason my attention drifts halfway through the ad so I have never figured what it is.

Problem with these things is cost of internet not subscription fees. It is still prohibitive for many. To make use of these services you need at least speeds of 10MBps. Don't even think of any cellular plans...so it's fiber. But fiber penetration is way too low

I got a sneaky feeling that internet is overpriced with crazy profit margins but then again, there's healthy competition among ISPs without significant price wars so I may be wrong. Maybe it's just my wishful thinking.

The ubiquity of the smartphone is the first hurdle that has sparked this. Cost of internet will plummet soon as satellite and simless tech is cracked. There will be a digital boom especially in entertainment. Most online stuff like gaming is out of reach for now. Even the social media in Kenya are lite version.

What excites me is that VIUSASA is Kenyan unlike SA Showmax and American Netflix, Hulu, etc. We need local competition to YouTube and other multimedia.

No idea the costs of running such a company. Probably Google Cloud expenses don't come cheap but the company better have some deep pockets to weather months of losses before internet cost comes down.

[Nefertiti]

Netflix crazy surge - from 50 to 118B in months. We have known for a while that broadcast TV is dead... I can watch all non-premium channels on YouTube now - and their ads overlap with YouTube's The merger of Walt Disney and Fox is a move against Netflix... it's a tough battle to control entertainment.

[Nefertiti]

Poor VIUSASA cannot compete with her local vernaculars. I don't find them (Viusasa) to be aggressive in building or searching for content - even if local - they should set up studios and encourage filmmakers, actors, artists, creatives, etc to develop quality content. Netflix has all sorts of promotions - it's Women Filmmakers Friday in LA!!

[vooke]

Netflix crazy surge - from 50 to 118B in months. We have known for a while that broadcast TV is dead... I can watch all non-premium channels on YouTube now - and their ads overlap with YouTube's The merger of Walt Disney and Fox is a move against Netflix... it's a tough battle to control entertainment.

Another senseless Wallstreet mispricing.
Netflix has been burning cash Year after year despite surge in its subscriptions. All they do is churn new content no matter the cost,borrow to do this,and hope some day in the future they will make enough revenues to pay for this. What exactly are investors seeing in this black hole?

[Nefertiti]

Netflix crazy surge - from 50 to 118B in months. We have known for a while that broadcast TV is dead... I can watch all non-premium channels on YouTube now - and their ads overlap with YouTube's The merger of Walt Disney and Fox is a move against Netflix... it's a tough battle to control entertainment.

Another senseless Wallstreet mispricing.
Netflix has been burning cash Year after year despite surge in its subscriptions. All they do is churn new content no matter the cost,borrow to do this,and hope some day in the future they will make enough revenues to pay for this. What exactly are investors seeing in this black hole?

Stock is potential. It's subscriptions are exponential for one. The experience is fantastic: my views are personalized - it knows me - down to my advance download preferences for when I travel. Netflix is the most innovative VoD company in the world. Just like Tesla - you should Elon Musk's new targets. The market is smart Pastor.

[hk]

Back to viusasa. In my humble opinion they need to be a little of HBO in the sense that they need to give people content that's not readily available anywhere else. But waruru and sk macharia kids really are on the right track.
Netflix, they're spending over $8b annual on content, basically they have forced disney to buy fox entertainment so that they can control hulu and have a shot at VOD market, amazing.

[gout]

The main challenge is poverty. We are yet to have a critical mass to afford most of these information age knowledge based products and services.

Once one person downloads any piece, it is shared by thousands - the artist is left with only exposure to do his stuff offline and charge.

Even for me, it is impossible for me to buy these things - I am for downloads be it - OS, software, movies, music and e-books.

Even buying local content of low quality is unnecessarily overpriced. A useless biography by a Kenyan retails at an average of Kshs. 2,500 while copies of great reads are retailing at Kshs. 50 in the streets. Same with music, films and games.

[Nefertiti]

Of course gout - there's that - the peanut economy. We must innovate around it. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't.

[Nefertiti]

How are Viusasa and Showmax faring in Kenya? Any traction? Who has the upper hand? None features on App Annie but it could be the usual racist blacking out of SSA stuff.