Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone West Africa, says access to Smart phones and data increases opportunities for Africans to export contents to the world.
Kola-Ogunlade in a statement on Monday in Lagos said there were more opportunities for Nigerians to showcase their talents through the YouTube via their Smart phones and data availability.
He said that mobile penetration in Africa “is about 67per cent and in Nigeria there are over 83 million internet subscribers, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission”.
He said that this would continue to increase and this would translate into increasing opportunities for Africans to export more contents to the world.
Kola-Ogunlade said: “Today, our world exists around our phones. As technology influences culture, many of us today see our smart phones as companion, and we sometimes imagine the world before the internet.
“With a Smartphone connected to the internet, we can achieve mundane activities like set calendars to keep appointments, set alarms to rise in the mornings, edit and store our pictures, all on our smart phones.
“Search engines like Google makes all of these possible, including being able to locate a restaurant close to you, find out the closest bus stop to your desired location, and even translate languages you never learnt before on the spot.
“With the internet on our smart phones, we can go beyond just accessing the basic features, to becoming “mobile stations’, creating content for viewers across the world to see.”
The Google manager said that Africans were endowed with a lot of indigenous stories and information that must be shared on a daily basis with the rest of the world.
Kola-Ogunlade said a better way of becoming a thought and content leader was by adopting the tech on our smart phones in order to do so.
He said: “By becoming content creators, we will not just be telling our unique stories but also preserving the originality of the stories.
“YouTube particularly is a great video streaming website that allows you to own your video channels, where you can post your stories in different video formats.
“Whether for business, building your personal brand, or just for passing across educational content, YouTube can be advantageous.
“Adopting YouTube also exposes the YouTube channel owner to Google Adsense, where you can begin to earn money from your uploaded videos.”
He said that there were Africans whose YouTube channels were already showcasing a skill: teaching people to cook, learn Igbo, Igala, Hausa or simply offering them a part story from Africa.
The Google communications manager added that in 2012, South Korean singer, Psy, showed that stars could emerge from the internet, when he broke the YouTube view counter with over two billion views.
Kola-Ogunlade said that recently, the internet “Viral video challenge”, the “Mannequin challenge”, with Rae Sremmurd’s Black Beatles track, which required that people remained frozen in actions, became popular all over the world.
He said that the challenge also became popular in Nigeria as well, when LASEMA posted a video of them in frozen action.
He added that awards were now given out to recognise the best YouTube videos on the platform in the preceding years of which Nigeria had content developers like Mark Angel and Ndani.
He said that those were seeking information about happenings in Nigeria, would switch to Channels Television recognised for broadcasting, “and there is also Ibaka, a highly subscribed Nollywood channel”.
Kola-Ogunlade said: “It is hoped that perhaps, an African is going to break the internet soon, and surpass Psy, with a chart-topping Afro-pop song, which will all start on YouTube.”
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