10/07/2021
FOR PRESS RELEASE: Kenya’s Profans wants to become the go-to platform for African visual content creators
Kenya startup Profans is an an online image and video-sharing resource and entertainment platform entirely focused on African content, aiming to help creators share and monetise their content.
Launched in 2021, Profans is a user-generated content and subscription image-video-on-demand platform with pan-African coverage in terms of diversity of content themes, content creation and representation in languages.
“Profans’s content is 100 per cent African, created by Africans for global consumption. The platform enables every African in Africa and or in the diaspora to create, post, and share Africa-focused video content and monetise the same, by subscriptions, no matter their country of origin, cultural heritage or language,” founder and chief executive officer (CEO) told Kiss.
“For established filmmakers and studios, Profans offers an avenue to generate revenue from completed projects and commissioning of new projects.”
“Technology has made it impossible for Africans in Africa and in the diaspora to communicate with one another freely, share video content, promote, codify and integrate common cultural experiences, values, and art that cut across people of African descent, no matter the language they may speak, and to showcase this content,” He said.
“Knowing that content shapes the world, the inability for Africans to tell their stories themselves, to sing their songs and to dance their dance gave rise to a lot of misconceptions about Africa, lack of opportunities for the youth, and has hindered developmental growth mostly in the creative industry.”
Africa, he began to believe, needed a platform through which the world would see the true Africa; one that would showcase its rich heritage. That is Profans, says Co-Founder, which he founded in 2021. So far, so productive, in terms of productions at least.
“In half a year of operation, we have hit more than 1,000 fans and subscribers, over 2,000 videos and images, a young and agile content creator ecosystem of about 780 creators and a 1.6 million database of content creators across Africa,” he said.
Started with funds from personal savings, family and friends, Profans is yet to secure its first investment in the coming year, from the New York-based African Discovery Group. Available worldwide, it is focusing on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Rwanda in terms of creating original and exclusive content.