Vumistream enters Kenyan market to rival Netflix, Showmax

Kenyans are angling for a slice of the Sh17.1 billion revenues in the video streaming industry in the continent with new inventions expected to spur the growth.

The battle to become the preferred video content streaming service by a majority of Africans is now changing the industry with players now changing tact to stay ahead of the competition.

According to Statista, Africa's live-streaming industry is projected to be worth over $124.49 million (Sh17.1 billion) by 2023.  

This growth leverages the rise of mobile money and tech-savvy young Africans to offer new ways for people to earn a living where job opportunities are often scarce.

However, piracy has emerged as the greatest threat to the Video on Demand regional market with Kenya’s creative industry losing Sh92 billion annually due to online piracy.

In an effort to tap into this potential Kenyans techpreneurs have unveiled locally designed video-on-demand and live-streaming platforms to help local artists grow their revenues.

Vumistream is Africa’s first live-streaming social media platform focused on empowering content creators to earn directly from their live streams.

VumiCentral chief executive officer Wilfred Kinyanjui says that to stay ahead of the ever-evolving technology, the company has remodeled its platform to the status of other multinationals like Netflix and YouTube which now enable for instance, influencers, and content creators better return on investment.

“Vumistream uses technology and human creativity to unlock new doors of opportunity for people in Africa. Our goal is to empower African content creators by providing the means and chances to earn a living from their enthusiasm for making and distributing content online,” says CEO Wilfred Kinyanjui.

According to the founder, direct payment to artists and content creators will enable artists to reduce their income that goes to pirated content.

A 2022 report by Partners Against Piracy (PAP) estimated that Sh15 billion is lost through pirated music, Sh32 billion is lost to pirated video content and Sh5 billion is lost from cinema.

Another Sh8 billion is lost from television, Sh29 billion from pirated books, magazines and newspapers and Sh3 billion is lost in gaming.

He says the platform provides tools for content creators to earn from their livestreams through tips, subscriptions, pay-per-view (premium livestreams), live e-commerce and webinars.

The development comes at a time that indications show that change in the media and entertainment is likely to continue, with studio and video streamers facing the reality of their own market disruption, trying to find profits in a less profitable business.

“We anticipate seeing novel kinds of content, interactions, and business models arising from Vumistream as we keep developing features that satisfy the requirements of our rapidly expanding community of creators and viewers throughout Africa.”

Vumistream plans to expand into more countries and continents by 2024. Headquartered in the UK, Vumistream is currently available in 10 African countries, with plans to scale across the continent.

The firm joins at a time that Netflix is competing with Amazon Prime Video and Showmax, a South African-based internet video streaming service that entered the Kenyan market in 2020.

The platform will also offer localized monetization tools tailored to African content creators, including mobile money payment options like M-Pesa and detailed analytics to help optimize their streams.

Vumistream features a range of content including lifestyle vlogs(IRL), comedy skits, music, gaming, news commentary, and more.

Creators can go live on Vumistream using their mobile phones or from a desktop using readily available encorders and will have access to Vumistream’s tools to enhance their streams, including real-time viewer stats, virtual gifts, and video effects.

Vumistream is currently self-funded but actively raising funding to further develop its live streaming and e-commerce technology as well as expand into new markets.

Africa is currently a small market for streaming TV subscriptions, with Digital TV Research projecting that Netflix will lead subscription video-on-demand services on the continent with 6.26 million paying customers in 2026.