Africa’s super app Sasai will be taking on international platforms like YouTube with a new product called “Sasai Watch”. The platform seeks to be the biggest repository of African content in the world. Sasai is also looking to give African content creators a local platform to monetise their work. This new product will put Sasai in direct competition with the big content platforms on the planet.
Like most things that happen in this world it didn’t start from nothing
Sasai’s African & Talented Promotion is probably where this starts
A few months ago Sasai launched the African and Talented Promotion which was an opportunity for Africans to win prizes through interactions generated from the content they uploaded.
At first glance, this promotion looked like a gimmick Sasai was using to increase users on their platform. But it appears that they were setting us up for this new product.
Ok… So what is Sasai Watch exactly?
Sasai wants, as previously mentioned, to create the largest user-generated African continent repository. The platform has also been launched to help Africans tell their stories. And through monetising the content this will also allow Africans to generate revenue from their talents.
On the user or audience end of things, you will be able to watch a variety of African content. This includes things like conventional video posts, livestreams and exclusives
What can content creators expect from Sasai Watch?
Sasai is coming at ad revenue based monetisation from a different angle. In most cases for your content to generate money on YouTube, for example, you’ll need to cross a threshold of subscribers in order to do so. Well, with Sasai Watch that barrier doesn’t exist and you can make money as long as your videos are getting views.
The platform is also looking to address the problem that most African content creators have with international content platforms. If you are a content creator on a western platform you will have to use the payment options that might not be easy to get in Africa. Sasai is looking to address that by integrating mobile money payouts because in Africa mobile money has a lower to barrier to entry than traditional financial institutions.
On top of ad revenue, Sasai watch will also be allowing content creators to set subscriptions for “exclusive content”.
Speaking of payouts
I am sure than one thing on many of your minds is what share of the ad revenue and subscription fees will Sasai be taking? At present YouTube has a 55/45 split with its content creators. Sasai will be taking far less according to the launch event. They couldn’t give a specific figure for ad revenue share percentages but said that it would be lower than other platforms. However, when it comes to subscription fees, Sasai Watch will be taking 15% of the money generated.
Will this catch on?
For once I am going to be an optimist and say “maybe”. There are a number of things that makes Sasai Watch attractive for African content creators and users. The first thing is ad revenue share, when Sasai releases figures and their ad revenue share is lower then I am sure there are many content creators that will come on board.
Secondly, the mobile money payout option is a big plus. In Zimbabwe, this essentially makes it easy for anyone with a Sasai bundle to upload their content. On the point of bundles, Sasai bundles are pretty cheap. Other Econet bundles have shot up but Sasai bundles have pretty much remained unchanged. This is excellent for the user as well, because it will be much cheaper than buying a data or any other social media bundle.
On the flip side of all this, Sasai Watch even though it is offering all of this might not be the destination that all African content creators would want to showcase their work. By this, I mean for there to be a tsunami of content creators and users they will have to rope in some really big names on the platform.
Convincing the more established African content creators to come on board may prove difficult. Without the user base for them to generate the revenue they enjoy on other platforms, this proposition may not be worth the time and effort.
However, this is an “African” product and the big content creators might want to go a platform that isn’t mired with all the things that come with the other content platforms.
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