Few businesses in Africa have found a way to monetize online video content, but Egyptian-led startup Qabila has cracked the puzzle and is reaping the benefits.
Qabila obtained a place in top five at the DEMO-Africa conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, last week, winning the Demo Lions award after underlying its strong business proposition and the problems its helps solve in society.
“We are a media production company, there are two main things that make us different from other media production houses,” Perihan AbouZeid, Qabila’s co-founder, told HumanIPO. “The first thing is that we only produce content that has value.”
This includes educational content, or content that moves the audience to action.
“The other thing that is more significant is that we crowdsource the content,” AbouZeid added. The company hosts a Facebook app, with close to 20,000 contributors, which contains audience-generated content.
The one-year-old platform currently has around 4 million views from its videos. It began with an investment of US$2,500, which was used to acquire the company’s first camera. In the near future, they hope to raise anything between US$200,000 and US$250,000 to expand its programme. Qabila is also is also looking to set up in selected African regions.
AbouZeid explained that they make money by bridging the gap between NGOs and the public by presenting content in an appealing way. They then get in touch with video producers who can translate that information in an entertaining way and they split the revenue with the producers.
They have managed to land customers such as the United Nations and governments in four different countries.
Qabila has had its videos broadcasted by major channels including Al-Jazeera.
