How YouTube is supporting Kenya’s creative landscape

Back in 2011 when YouTube came into the Kenyan market, it was a quick way to access our favourite music and interviews.

But today, over a decade on, it has transformed into an information and culture hub which has allowed creators and viewers alike to find their unique niches.

Content creators like Njugush, a popular comedian, have learnt to leverage the use of the platform to keep their communities close.

Njugush TV, his channel, now enjoys over 650,000 subscribers on the platform, with many skits going on to be viral on social media.

The funnyman revealed in an interview how being conned out of his creative clips at one point, as well as looking for permanent storage solutions for his videos pushed him to explore YouTube, where he would begin to build a solid viewership.

“Initially, on TV, we used to make money through acting, but now you are on your own. So how do you make money out of this[craft]”?” Njugush posed in an interview.

“We decided to go with this and we started creating generic content and putting it on Facebook and Instagram. But after doing many takes, our phones would get full, and we started looking for a place to store these videos, that’s when we started on YouTube.”

At the time, he was not aware of monetization of channels on the platform, and only got to know about it years later, in 2019.

“There is a time I came back on YouTube towards the end of 2017, and I had a video with over 100,000 views. I had 47,000 subscribers at the time and I asked myself, ‘are all these people watching me?’”

His YouTube views had surpassed his social media numbers at the time, and that aided in his decision to go full-on on YouTube.

By 2017, Njugush had experienced such exponential growth that the big brands came calling with deals to boot.

 YouTube notes in a report that there has been an increase in the revenue earned by Kenyan channels, with those earning more than Sh 100,000 witnessing a year-over-year increment of over 25 per cent as of December 2022.

“The Kenyan creator community has seen substantial growth, with a 35 per cent year-over-year increase in channels surpassing 10K subscribers. The exponential rise in channels exceeding 1M subscribers by over 110 per cent year-over-year is a testament to Kenya’s burgeoning influence.”

Crazy Kennar is another entertainer who has built his reputation as an established creator on the space.

His channel also has over 600,000 followers, with many clips averaging at over 1 million views. His total channel views currently stand at a staggering 167 million.

“I want Tales of Crazy Kennar to take entertainment to the next level and to impact people positively,” he said.

“Thank you for the 100 Million views on YouTube. And that makes us the 1st content creators to get 100million views on YouTube in Kenya. Wacha sasa tukimbizane na Otile Brown,” he said while celebrating the milestone in 2021.

The video sharing platform reports that it has enabled Kenyan creators to generate revenue and grow their own brands, while working to promote Kenyan storytelling. Further, its role in the music scene is also notable.

“It has been instrumental in discovering and developing African sounds, exporting Kenyan music globally, and enabling collaborations within the music industry. This platform empowers artists and fuels the growth of the music economy.”