Afrostream is a startup launching out of our current class that has built a movie streaming service that specifically highlights films with African and African-American actors and themes.
Starting in September, Afrostream will be available in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast and cost €7 per month. More The demand is quite high: Afrostream’s service has already attracted 2,000 signups, pulling in $100,000 in subscriptions in a matter of weeks.
And here’s the TechCrunch story
The CEO is from a Francophone country and I wonder if they’ll focus more on French language films - their launch countries are all French-speaking. Anyway, apart from the YC endorsement, I wonder…
I love Tonje and afrostream.tv. One of my favourite internet TV startup founders. Real passion and crystal clear vision. We speak fairly regularly and share ideas about the future of Internet TV in Africa (both English and French). He hosts me when I’m in Paris and my wife cooked breakfast for him in our NY apartment a few weeks back. All love. Until we meet on the fields of war. But otherwise he is creating his version of reality and I totally respect that.
As far as the African side of it, I don’t see them catching iRoko. But I’ve always wondered why @Jason_Igwe_Njoku never went after the African American movie market. Anyone who is familiar, knows how big ‘hood movies’ are and how bootleggers make bank off them.
I pitched this idea to a couple of my African-American entrepreneur friends and none seemed excited enough to give it a real look. Maybe I’m missing something there.
In my opinion the real opportunity for Afrostream are the African-American and Latino-American (urban) communities, which are underserved in the U.S. mainstream media but represent a huge market both in terms of population and spending power.
We are just narrowing our focus. Aim small to mis small. I love Afrostreams angle that’s why Tonje and I became fast friends. I acknowledged his clarity but didn’t see it as the great usurper we fear here at Iroko. Just a different reality from our own. Our focus is on Lagos first. That’s enough headaches to keep us occupied for the next few years.
