Even though Mark Angel could be currently making around $1 million from his comedy channel on YouTube, he can be making five times as much if internet service in Nigeria has not been a limiting factor. Not just Mark Angel but also every single content producer in Nigeria has been denied the opportunity to earn more revenue because of poor internet service, which worse still is expensive.
YouTubers, that is, content creators on the popular video sharing platform have been leveraging on it as a way to distribute their content, monetise directly, and also indirectly through clients who may need them to render professional services away from YouTube. However, all of these remain limited if audiences can hardly view their content on YouTube in the first place.
“Sometimes it can be discouraging when you put in a lot of effort to produce a video and then it gets very little views,” lamented Tobi Ayeni who runs the MissTechy channel.
Mark Angel, who has Nigeria’s biggest YouTube channel with 715 million views and 3.5 million subscribers, said the “Biggest challenge is data and Telcos.” According to him, there are no policies in favour of the users, and these need to be put in place. The more people use internet, the more they are likely to consume content, and this will in turn be a source of revenue for content producers. For instance, Google has a system in place, which pays them by views.
As Mark explained, people are often hesitant to visit video streaming platforms like YouTube and that is a big disadvantage to content creators. “If people are unable to watch videos, content producers will equally be unable to make money from their work,” he said.
Eric Okafor, with 24,000 subscribers and 5.4 million views, also expressed the view that a content creator cannot let data be his/her problem as a YouTuber, if at all that should be the concern of viewers. The internet is an essential tool for the job, but for many potential viewers, it is considered a luxury, even though it should not be seen as such.
Emeka Erem, a stand-up comedian known as Ajebo had been producing comedy skits and sharing on different social media platforms just as a way of making his work known. He would later find out some people were aggregating his works, and putting them up on platforms where they made money from it. This prompted him to set up his own channel, as way of monetising his creative work directly.
In an interview, Ajebo explained he is making some money from the YouTube channel, but not as much he wants. Invariably, meeting his revenue expectations, just as other content creators will be a function of how many people get to view his works in the first place.
Internet service plans vary by different mobile networks and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), but the costs are considered high. Internet service is not only considered expensive, but perhaps more important, of very poor quality.
The Speedtest global index ranks Nigeria 138 in quality of fixed broadband with an average download speed of 10.90 Mbps, whereas the global average was 55.32 Mbps. For Mobile network speed, Nigeria is ranked 107 in the world with an average speed of 12.76 Mbps in January 2019, whereas the global average speed was 25.38 Mbps.
The quality of internet service, apart from the numbers provided, manifests for everyday internet users in Nigeria. When they struggle to get their internet working, the last thing they want is to stream videos with it. But then, for as long as poor internet service, which is also expensive, remains the norm in Nigeria, then those who rely on online content consumption will not realise their full commercial potentials.
CALEB OJEWALE
