Unlocking Africa: the content that drives the market

The opportunity for mVAS across Africa is huge, but what content and services is driving that market – and what impact could US tariffs have on this? Paul Skeldon takes a look

Africa is a diverse continent, made up of many countries – each with their own unique interests and mores. Mobile entertainment services in Africa are thriving due to increasing smartphone penetration, affordable data plans and a youthful population.

The development of mobile payment services such as M-PESA have brought millions of unbanked consumers into the market for all things digital and that has seen an explosion in use. So, what are they using?

STREAMING SERVICES

Music and video streaming services are the most popular mVAS across Africa, as might be expected. South Africa’s Showmax – a subscription-based video-ondemand service offering TV shows, movies and original productions – is popular in South Africa and expanding across the continent.

As of 2023, it had 2.1 million subscribers, more than Netflix. Nigeria’s IROKOtv, meanwhile has become the “Netflix of Africa,” specialising in Nollywood films and African TV series, with more than 5000 movies on its platform. And Boomplay – a pan-African music streaming service pre-installed on Transsion phones – now has more than 75 million users as of 2023 and remains a top app in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.

These big names show that video and TV content streaming are big business and telemedia companies looking to get in on the action need to look at how they too can create and sell long and short form video.

On the music side, South Africa’s TRACE Play focuses on Afro-urban music, concerts and TV shows celebrating African culture.

What these all have in common is that they thrive on local content for local people. Typically, success in streaming lies in localising the content to each country’s market. There are 47 countries in Africa and they are all culturally different. These local players show just how important getting that right is – both in terms of content and price point.

MOBILE GAMING

Games are big digital business the world over and African markets are no exception. Again, though, keeping it local is key. Nigeria generated around $300 million in 2024 from mobile gaming, while South Africa contributed around $278 million driven largely by esports platforms such as Mettlestate.

Esports are particularly popular across Africa, with a relatively youthful population drawn to sports in general, but more affordable and more youth-orientate esports in particular.

What is interesting is that there is increasingly a crop of mVAS players such as YangoPlay, which are combining music, movies and games into a single offering and are already widely used across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. India’s Hungama is doing something similar (see page 14).

THINK LOCAL

The key with unlocking African mVAS services lies in thinking local, says Jacqui Jones, MD of Worldplay. Each market is different and wants its own content and services. Successful models can be transferred to other markets, but as the success of local services over global offerings such as Netflix shows, it is understanding what works in each market that is key to unlocking Africa.

To learn more about the African content market, go to: www.dubai.wtevent.com