Content creators to reap big with Baze
Content Creators have long suffered from being victims of content violations.
But this is all about to change as Safaricom on Thursday unveiled a new service that will offer customers a wide variety of video content and provide content creators an additional platform to monetize their content.
Baze, a mobile-first, video-on-demand service that will offer a wide selection of local and regional short-form videos in comedy, drama, lifestyle, music, among others.
Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Customer Officer – Safaricom said the platform will give customers the convenience of accessing a vast collection of video content, including first-run exclusives, on their smartphones.“Our goal is to delight our customers by availing a carefully curated collection of video content across their favourite genres.
Baze will place the entertainment Kenyans want at their fingertips, giving users freedom, choice and control over the content they consume.
”According to Ms Mulinge, they went out and interacted with customers and came up with the name.
“If you know what a baze is in the estates, it’s a place where people meet and chill. So what we did was to just retake the name that Kenyans know and we want them to come here and interact with real Kenyan stories.”
Of late, content creators have been sharing their journeys and insightful tips about how to create memorable content on Safaricom’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Creators such as Flaqo, Bien, Wahu and Mugambi Nthiga have been sharing gems that any creator should tap into.
This according to Head of Digital Products and Partnership Ms Fawzia Ali will see them earn 60 percent of the revenue that the telco will collect.“This is a commitment we made to the creators that they have to bring their content to us.
However, we cannot fund them but what we are doing is helping those who already have content to repurpose for the platform. We committed to support six creators to the tune of Sh2 million,” she said.
Safaricom has also partnered with Mission To Rescue a brand new Kenya action film that will premiere exclusively on the video streaming platform from June 1. “It will be on the platform for three months before being unveiled anywhere else,” added Ms. Mulinge.
Kenyan content creators across all genres are urged to submit their original content for consideration. The genres are; Entertainment (Comedy, Kids, Drama), Lifestyle Culture (Travel, Food, Fashion, Fitness, DIYs, Mom & Baby), Factual, News and Documentary, Faith Sports, and Music.Digital video streaming in Kenya has been dominated by international sites such as YouTube, Netflix, Vimeo, with local products ViuSasa and Airtel TV steadily gaining ground.Safaricom already has 30 million mobile subscribers and is looking to tap into a market that has smartphone usage of up to 18 million users.