The world’s largest online distributor of
Nollywood movies and African music, iROKO Partners, has entered South Africa
with the opening of a new office in Johannesburg to increase its African
presence. The company was founded in Nigeria by Jason Njoku in 2010 and already
has offices in Lagos, New York and London. Since its inception, iROKO Partners
has grown to over six million unique users that utilise their music service,
iROKING, and online Nollywood movie streaming platform, iROKOtv.
Nollywood is the
world’s second largest film industry in terms of output, producing about 2,000
films per year.
Genevieve
Dumorné, who heads up the iROKO Partners’ Johannesburg office, told How we made
it in Africa about the company’s plans in South Africa.
What is the strategy behind opening iROKO’s second African
office in Johannesburg?
Entertainment is
a people business – we need to be doing business face-to-face, every single
day, so that’s why we felt we needed a permanent base in South Africa. We also know that the big
advertising and media agencies are here, and it’s important for us to grow
strong working relationships with them. We have awesome platforms and they have
brands that want to access our viewers – we need to get talking!
What does the South African market have to offer iROKO Partners?
South Africa is a
mature market for both the tech and entertainment scenes so we need to be there. It’s
that simple. We have two incredible platforms, iROKOtv and iROKING, that have
revolutionised how the African diaspora accesses home-grown entertainment, be
it movies or music. In 2013, we want to build our consumer base across the
continent and that starts with one of the bigger African economies, which is
South Africa.
What similarities and differences have been noticed between the
audiences in South Africa and Nigeria?
South Africans
and Nigerians are the same in that those that watch [Nollywood movies] are
fanatics about it. We have over 5,000 movies for that reason. I assumed it was
Nigerians in South Africa that were watching it, but we looked at our numbers,
it’s mainly South Africans. Clearly South Africans are unique in their
cultures, but I think that Nollywood is a common denominator. The story lines
are highly relatable.
Tell us about the decision to partner with a South African
company GoMetro?
The mobi site we
built for GoMetro was our first partnership with a South African company. They
had a new mobile site for up-to-date travel information and they wanted to
enhance this with an entertainment feature. We know that once people are
commuting and have travel info to-hand, their next step is to read or listen to
music. So we decided to make iROKING accessible through the site, allowing
daily commuters using the site instant free download access to the thousands of
songs we have on the site. It was really well received and a fantastic first
foray into working with a South African partner.
Are there any other partnership plans?
There are always
plans in the pipeline – we move quickly and work with the best. But I have to
keep future plans and partnerships under wraps until they launch.
Are there any other African markets that are being considered
for expansion? If so, which ones and why?
We’re looking to
East Africa as a future location for further iROKO expansion. But for the
moment, we’re totally focused on cultivating the South African team and
building an advertiser and tech partner base.
Howwemadeitinafrica.com