1. Friday, 20 May 2011 NEXT X2 3
M
e e t J a s o n
C h u k w u m a
Njoku, founder
and CEO of Iroko Partners
and Nollywood Love, a
YouTube channel where
popular Nollywood movies,
both in Yoruba and English,
can be watched full-length
and without breaks. Iroko
Partners takes an immensely
popular movie, sanitises it,
and digitizes the content
before making it available for
people on the popular online
video file sharing website,
YouTube.
Theidea
N j o k u d i s c o v e r e d
Nollywood only recently,
having been born in the
United Kingdom and lived
there until last September.
In mid-2009, he noticed
that his mum, aunts, uncles
and friends had become
somewhat fanatical about
this phenomenon called
Nollywood. There was a
growing cultural movement
among Africans in the
Diaspora, who were more
focused on their homeland
values and entertainment,
of which Nollywood is a
conspicuous example.
Being a curious person,
N j o k u e x p l o r e d t h e
distribution models for
Nollywood movies, wanting
toknowhowtheindustrygets
its movies into its consumers’
eager hands, but the more he
looked, the more he realised,
amazingly, that there wasn’t
any. More importantly, he
discovered the obvious and
glaring fact that the industry
is buckling under the threat
of piracy. When he sought
out Nollywood videos on
YouTube, all he found were
short clips and 10-minute
long extracts of full-length
movies.
“I realised that there is a
hugeopportunityherebecause
ofNollywood’salreadyproven
popularity. All there is left
to do is to slightly organise it
and with a great partner like
YouTube,wehavebeenableto
dothis,”heexplains.
Startingout
For a chemistry graduate
withnoclueaboutwhathewas
doing at first, the beginning
of the Nollywood Love
project proved to be pretty
challenging.Njokuhadnoreal
experience handling digital
files or formatting, he didn’t
know how to make money
from the content, much less
price it, and negotiating legal
documentationandorganising
himselfandhissmallteamwas
alogisticalnightmare.
“It was a question of
accepting I was mostly going
to make mistakes and having
theconfidence,orstupidity,to
believe most of them wouldn’t
lead to the business’ failure,”
heconfesses.
“Capital, as always, is
a problem for a fledgling
business. This was a challenge
in setting up as it was capital-
intensive. We are negotiating
and acquiring multi-year
licensing deals alongside
supporting a growing number
of staff, with the obvious
costs of getting fast internet
connection and ensuring
constant electricity supply,”
he stated, highlighting some
issueshehadtodealwith.
“However, looking on, the
businesshasexperiencedsuch
massive growth so quickly
that getting capital isn’t really
a problem anymore,” Njoku
says of his four-month-old
enterprise.
Goodol’Google
Njoku discovered the
YouTubepartnershipprogram
for businesses, a revenue-
sharing program that allows
creators and producers of
originalcontenttoearnmoney
from their popular videos on
YouTube, and he approached
them. For him, “YouTube is
the biggest and most robust
videochannelontheplanet.It
isourbusiness;ourbusinessis
literarilybuiltonit,”hesays.
“We don’t have problems
with issues like streaming; we
get traffic from 131 countries
monthly. Wherever you
are, you can access us, so
far you have a good internet
connection,”hepointsout.
Initially, he prioritised the
ideaofhavingalargedatabase
of movies and went ahead to
secure the rights to over 500
movies chosen randomly, as
opposed to finding out which
moviesviewerswouldprefer.
“At the beginning there was
noideaofwhichmoviestobuy
as there are no statistics out
there that showed anything of
such,”hesaid.
Now,saysNjoku,inorderto
determine the kind of movies
to buy, the viewing and rating
data are always given a critical
look as the analytic evidence
of 1.4 million monthly unique
viewers gives Nollywood Love
a clearer idea of the types of
movies their subscribers want
towatch.
Google supports Njoku’s
business in other areas,
including communication
with his customers and
the use of annotations to
broadcast information. But
it is the analytics service on
the site, which provides data
that can read and interpreted
in various ways, which is key
to Nollywood Love’s success.
Through effective use of the
technology available, Njoku’s
team can interpret such
minutedataashowmanytimes
a viewer rewinds a part of a
movie, in order to understand
what is really important to
their clients. This influences
the types of movies whose
licensestheywillpurchase.
Iroko Partners and
Nollywood
Noticing that there are very
few ways to get Nollywood
movies off the shores of the
African continent, Iroko
Partners approached the
major players in Nollywood
and now legally buy and
put their movies online. It
turned out it to be a welcome
opportunityforbothpartiesto
monetize the excitement and
loveforNollywood.
“Putting the movies online
helpstheNollywoodindustry
totapintotheglobalaudience
theyhaveundeniablycreated.
Previously, internet piracy is
rampant. It still is, but we are
going a long way to control
that tide. Iroko Partners is
investing significant sums
into Nollywood and have
quickly become a great way
for producers to make money
off their back catalogue and
newer releases.
“This market didn’t exist
six months ago. [The online
market]isimportantforthose
in far-flung places like Dubai,
IndiaorRussia,whoobviously
haven’t got ready local access
to their beloved Nigerian
cinema so Nollywood Love
helps them connect with the
homeland,”Njokuexplains.
Njoku’s plan for the
industry goes beyond
making profits off the online
consumption of Nollywood
movies. On the contrary,
he hopes, in the long run,
to improve the distribution
infrastructuresandaddvalue
to the industry.
“Nollywood should be ten
times bigger than what it
currently is. The bottle neck
is the distribution,” he points
out. “We are looking to solve
the global distribution issues.
We are making a five-year
minimum investment to
support Nollywood to take
its rightful place amongst the
greatcinemanations.”
By Funmilayo ajala
INNOVATIVE
Njoku has opened
new fronts for the
distribution of home
videos
IrokoPartnerstakesNollywoodonline
“This markeT didn’T
exisT 6 monThs ago.
[The online markeT] is
imporTanT for Those
in far-flung places
like dubai, india or
russia, who obviously
haven’T goT ready
local access To Their
beloved nigerian cin-
ema. nollywood love
helps Them connecT
wiTh The homeland”
Jason Njoku with Nollywood actresses PHOTO COURTESY JASON NJOKU
![Friday, 20 May 2011 NEXT X2 3
M
e e t J a s o n
C h u k w u m a
Njoku, founder
and CEO of Iroko Partners
and Nollywood Love, a
YouTube channel where
popular Nollywood movies,
both in Yoruba and English,
can be watched full-length
and without breaks. Iroko
Partners takes an immensely
popular movie, sanitises it,
and digitizes the content
before making it available for
people on the popular online
video file sharing website,
YouTube.
Theidea
N j o k u d i s c o v e r e d
Nollywood only recently,
having been born in the
United Kingdom and lived
there until last September.
In mid-2009, he noticed
that his mum, aunts, uncles
and friends had become
somewhat fanatical about
this phenomenon called
Nollywood. There was a
growing cultural movement
among Africans in the
Diaspora, who were more
focused on their homeland
values and entertainment,
of which Nollywood is a
conspicuous example.
Being a curious person,
N j o k u e x p l o r e d t h e
distribution models for
Nollywood movies, wanting
toknowhowtheindustrygets
its movies into its consumers’
eager hands, but the more he
looked, the more he realised,
amazingly, that there wasn’t
any. More importantly, he
discovered the obvious and
glaring fact that the industry
is buckling under the threat
of piracy. When he sought
out Nollywood videos on
YouTube, all he found were
short clips and 10-minute
long extracts of full-length
movies.
“I realised that there is a
hugeopportunityherebecause
ofNollywood’salreadyproven
popularity. All there is left
to do is to slightly organise it
and with a great partner like
YouTube,wehavebeenableto
dothis,”heexplains.
Startingout
For a chemistry graduate
withnoclueaboutwhathewas
doing at first, the beginning
of the Nollywood Love
project proved to be pretty
challenging.Njokuhadnoreal
experience handling digital
files or formatting, he didn’t
know how to make money
from the content, much less
price it, and negotiating legal
documentationandorganising
himselfandhissmallteamwas
alogisticalnightmare.
“It was a question of
accepting I was mostly going
to make mistakes and having
theconfidence,orstupidity,to
believe most of them wouldn’t
lead to the business’ failure,”
heconfesses.
“Capital, as always, is
a problem for a fledgling
business. This was a challenge
in setting up as it was capital-
intensive. We are negotiating
and acquiring multi-year
licensing deals alongside
supporting a growing number
of staff, with the obvious
costs of getting fast internet
connection and ensuring
constant electricity supply,”
he stated, highlighting some
issueshehadtodealwith.
“However, looking on, the
businesshasexperiencedsuch
massive growth so quickly
that getting capital isn’t really
a problem anymore,” Njoku
says of his four-month-old
enterprise.
Goodol’Google
Njoku discovered the
YouTubepartnershipprogram
for businesses, a revenue-
sharing program that allows
creators and producers of
originalcontenttoearnmoney
from their popular videos on
YouTube, and he approached
them. For him, “YouTube is
the biggest and most robust
videochannelontheplanet.It
isourbusiness;ourbusinessis
literarilybuiltonit,”hesays.
“We don’t have problems
with issues like streaming; we
get traffic from 131 countries
monthly. Wherever you
are, you can access us, so
far you have a good internet
connection,”hepointsout.
Initially, he prioritised the
ideaofhavingalargedatabase
of movies and went ahead to
secure the rights to over 500
movies chosen randomly, as
opposed to finding out which
moviesviewerswouldprefer.
“At the beginning there was
noideaofwhichmoviestobuy
as there are no statistics out
there that showed anything of
such,”hesaid.
Now,saysNjoku,inorderto
determine the kind of movies
to buy, the viewing and rating
data are always given a critical
look as the analytic evidence
of 1.4 million monthly unique
viewers gives Nollywood Love
a clearer idea of the types of
movies their subscribers want
towatch.
Google supports Njoku’s
business in other areas,
including communication
with his customers and
the use of annotations to
broadcast information. But
it is the analytics service on
the site, which provides data
that can read and interpreted
in various ways, which is key
to Nollywood Love’s success.
Through effective use of the
technology available, Njoku’s
team can interpret such
minutedataashowmanytimes
a viewer rewinds a part of a
movie, in order to understand
what is really important to
their clients. This influences
the types of movies whose
licensestheywillpurchase.
Iroko Partners and
Nollywood
Noticing that there are very
few ways to get Nollywood
movies off the shores of the
African continent, Iroko
Partners approached the
major players in Nollywood
and now legally buy and
put their movies online. It
turned out it to be a welcome
opportunityforbothpartiesto
monetize the excitement and
loveforNollywood.
“Putting the movies online
helpstheNollywoodindustry
totapintotheglobalaudience
theyhaveundeniablycreated.
Previously, internet piracy is
rampant. It still is, but we are
going a long way to control
that tide. Iroko Partners is
investing significant sums
into Nollywood and have
quickly become a great way
for producers to make money
off their back catalogue and
newer releases.
“This market didn’t exist
six months ago. [The online
market]isimportantforthose
in far-flung places like Dubai,
IndiaorRussia,whoobviously
haven’t got ready local access
to their beloved Nigerian
cinema so Nollywood Love
helps them connect with the
homeland,”Njokuexplains.
Njoku’s plan for the
industry goes beyond
making profits off the online
consumption of Nollywood
movies. On the contrary,
he hopes, in the long run,
to improve the distribution
infrastructuresandaddvalue
to the industry.
“Nollywood should be ten
times bigger than what it
currently is. The bottle neck
is the distribution,” he points
out. “We are looking to solve
the global distribution issues.
We are making a five-year
minimum investment to
support Nollywood to take
its rightful place amongst the
greatcinemanations.”
By Funmilayo ajala
INNOVATIVE
Njoku has opened
new fronts for the
distribution of home
videos
IrokoPartnerstakesNollywoodonline
“This markeT didn’T
exisT 6 monThs ago.
[The online markeT] is
imporTanT for Those
in far-flung places
like dubai, india or
russia, who obviously
haven’T goT ready
local access To Their
beloved nigerian cin-
ema. nollywood love
helps Them connecT
wiTh The homeland”
Jason Njoku with Nollywood actresses PHOTO COURTESY JASON NJOKU](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/b7a08eaa-e661-469b-adfd-601ebe882982-150514172617-lva1-app6892/85/Article-1-1-320.jpg)
