iFlix, a global Subscription Video on Demand (SvoD) platform for emerging markets, is banking on artificial intelligence (AI) and cultivated relationship with telecommunication operators and content producers in Nigeria to improve video streaming service in Nigeria.
The company which recently secured a $133 million funding round from Hearst Corporation launched its services on Thursday 17 August, 2017 in Lagos, Nigeria.
iFlix was founded in Malaysia in 2015 and it currently has presence in 19 countries.
Ngozi Madueke-Dozie, country manager of iFlix told BusinessDay that its machine learning (AI) technology allows it to tailor services to specific audiences. The company, she said, recognises that customers’ content need could differ; hence being able to identify what the peculiarities of individual customers are gives iFlix the edge in the video streaming industry.
She also noted the role of partnerships in driving the goal to provide everyone with access to legal entertainment, without limitations.
“For us to be successful in this market we will have to work and partner with the telcos. These partnerships are built by identifying areas of similarities and aligning your goals. The telcos are looking to increase their data subscribers which works for us because we want them to increase their data subscribers. So those partnerships are important. If you look at our roadmap across all the countries that we launched in, over 80 percent of them were done by partnering with the telcos,” Madueke-Dozie said.
She further noted that the growing trend in video streaming is the convergence of content, mobile and entertainment; hence any company that is able to combine all the three elements gains the advantage.
“The truth is, business wise, it makes all the sense to stick to your core competence. I wouldn’t necessarily advise that a content creator goes ahead to develop their own platform, unless you are a Disney, which is just doing that now.
“So partnership becomes the most important route where you say “Let me do what I do” which is to provide the Over the Top (OTT) platform, I will get content from content creators and then partner with telcos to distribute it,” she said.
One of the things that iFlix is also beginning to realise and is looking to leverage as a platform, aside from being very affordable at N800, is that having exclusive content is an attraction. Global competitors like Netflix and Amazon are already playing very big in this field and have gone ahead to produce award winning movies and TV Shows.
“That is a strategy that we have for Nigeria; that once we launch we partner,” says Madueke-Dozie. “But is one step at a time. If you look at the more matured launch market, they have gone from launching, partnering with telcos, to investing in the film industry in that country and they are now producing their own original iFlix productions. That is the trajectory in which we are also moving.”
The iFlix mobile app is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store and users can sign up for a free month trial.
