The next time you watch an episode of the hit television series Mr Robot on your smartphone from anywhere in Kenya, you may be doing so from iFlix’s mobile application.
iFlix, the Malaysian subscription-based video on demand service, has set its eyes on several African countries including Kenya where it is set to roll out over the next few months. The others are Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ghana.
The company is eyeing a share of the continent’s projected 720 million smartphone users by the year 2020 with its expansive content portfolio presented in a mobile app as well as other platforms.
When it becomes available, iFlix will join an increasing list of the who’s who in the global video streaming game that are available to users from Kenya.
Towards the end of last year, Amazon’s own video on demand service Prime Video became available in the country just months after South African video streaming service ShowMax started operations in the country. Earlier in the year, Netflix, the poster child of video streaming services around the world, had rolled out in Kenya.
Both Netflix and ShowMax have had to fine tune and refine their mobile applications in order to appeal to the unique needs of users in emerging markets like Kenya. Netflix started allowing users to save video content for later offline viewing last November. 2 months later, the company extended the capability to microSD cards as well, an often requested feature. ShowMax, on the other hand, recently had to remove its Android application from the Play Store to address user concerns which had seen the app constantly rated lowly before bringing it back.
ShowMax has also gone a step further to optimise mobile data consumption through its application as well as making it easier to pay for the service (via mobile money service M-PESA) through the ShowMax Select bouquet, moves that new entrants to the market like iFlix may want to explore and seriously consider.
Prior to announcing its impending rollout in the country, iFlix had been actively recruiting staff for its Kenyan office since October last year.
