Video sharing platform, YouTube has become a big part of content creation. Even with the recent popularity of short-form video hosting service TikTok, the company records 14.3 billion views per month, making it the second most-visited website globally – the first being its parent company, Google. Part of YouTube’s success can be attributed to the company embracing a broad and diverse set of voices with platforms like YouTube’s black creators. Across Africa, content creators are utilizing the available resources and cashing out big time from the platform. A recent report by the loan company CashnetUSA and the social media data firm Social Blade shows that YouTube is still the biggest platform for creators in terms of reach and revenue. The research further analyzed the most popular YouTube channel in every country, estimating its all-time revenue using YouTube’s average payout per thousand views. Here are some interesting things to note from the report about African content creation.
There is a growing demand for content in the region
There is a growing global interest in Africa and all it has to offer. A good example is Nigerian artist Rema getting 335 million views on YouTube for his song calm down. This earned him the title of the most viewed video in the history of Afrobeat as a genre. Not too long ago, another Afrobeats artist, Ckay held this title with over 300 million views on YouTube for his hit song love nwantiti. Although African YouTubers are yet to reach the viewing figures of large content creators in other regions, content from Africa seems to be getting a lot of attention. These contents include everything from entertainment to animation and how-to-do videos. According to the report from CashNetUSA, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have at least 300 channels with more than 100,000 subscribers. And this demand comes from both regional and global audiences. In some countries, this demand for content is more global than regional. According to the report, 75% of Nigerian content, is consumed by a global audience. The same metric applies to 45% of Kenya’s and 65% of South Africa’s content consumption.
North African content creators are YouTube Africa’s top earners.
According to the report, North African content creators are YouTube’s top earners, with four out of the top eight earners originating from the region. The biggest earner in Africa is 5-Minute Crafts, an instructional YouTube channel that gives viewers tips and tricks to help them complete tasks or make items and gifts completely from scratch. Since its inception in 2017, the channel has made $8.7 million in revenue. They have consistently uploaded multiple videos per day. Chances are if you need to find out how to do something, 5-Minute Crafts will have a tutorial to help you.
However, there are creators from other regions that earn well above $1 million, making it to the top of the rich list. Algerian cooking YouTuber Oum Walid has earned $4.9 million since its inception, while Nigerian comedy channel, Mark Angel comedy is the biggest earner in Sub-Saharan Africa, earning $4.2 million. Moroccan channel, Baraka Ibaraka, Senegalese duo of Hussein and Zeinab, and Masaka Kids Africana 7, a children’s musical ensemble from Uganda also made it to the top 8 earners.
Children content is an under-explored goldmine in Africa
Children’s channels are now more popular than gaming channels, which used to own the top spot. They rank well above how-to videos, entertainment, comedy, and animal content. American kids’ channel, Cocomelon is the highest-earning YouTube channel of all time, with estimated earnings of $282.8 million since its creation in 2006. According to the report, children’s content tops the YouTube earnings charts in North America, most of South America, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia, and parts of the middle east. However, Africa is yet to fully benefit from this trend. According to UNICEF, Africa’s child population will be 1 billion by 2055, making it the largest child population among all continents. This provides the continent with vast opportunities in producing children’s content. One of the African platforms seizing this opportunity is Omoberry, a Nigerian kids’ channel leveraging animation and music to produce diverse and inclusive children’s content, tailored toward Africans. So far, they have over 53.6 million views with their channel.
