Kenyan Youtubers and other YouTubers, in general, have played a significant role to us as a society. The recent news by Google Kenya has been well received and with arms wide open. I appreciate that someone spoke out my mind. For the longest time, I never understand why Kenyan Youtubers act as if they’re not Kenyans at all. A few days ago I actually thought to myself that starting a channel came with an additional accent as well. Has that crossed your mind too? In Kenya, there has been an 80 per cent increase in mobile usage of YouTube which indicates that more people are spending time watching YouTube videos.
YouTube launched a project last year known as YouTube Go, an app designed for places where connectivity is slower and more expensive. The app has been downloaded by more than 50 million people. Google Kenya office, which is working with Kenyan content creators to help them monetize their channels, encouraged Vloggers to grow their fan base by using online tools.
Google Sub-Saharan Africa Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Dorothy Ooko, said creators need to focus on producing quality content and utilize the analytics provided by YouTube. YouTube has urged Kenyan content creators to churn out quality, consistent videos that can appeal to local and international viewers. “What we have seen from our analytics is that 60 percent of content created in any country is always exported so it’s very important for creators to think about how they are meeting the needs of the global village,” said Ooko during a YouTube forum.
She added that content consumers can also help grow the vlogging community by subscribing to local channels on YouTube. “For creators, whatever content you create must be shareable and must have engaging content. If the content is not engaging, viewers will drop off immediately,” said Ooko. “Consistency in posting the content and the type of content also allows consumers and brands to relate with the content in a predictable way,” added Google Kenya Country Manager Charles Muritu.
Google said the growth is fueled by the content that creators are uploading to YouTube. Globally, over 400 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube every minute. Ooko said YouTube has over the last one year released about 300 product improvements to search and discovery systems to help people find more videos they love. This includes things like the localized YouTube Music charts which captures exactly what Kenyans are listening to every week. Among the products launched last year is YouTube Go an app designed for places where connectivity is slower and more expensive.