Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films • Hacker News Board

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#31

Post by fecak » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

jkuria wrote: post #25

Hmmh, I though Jason Njoku's irokoTV was doing really well? Isn't it the same concept? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Njoku I guess they target Africans in the diaspora, who have much more disposable income. It is very tough to succeed targeting Africans in Africa without first focusing on a specific country. By the way, I see this phenomenon a lot with African restaurants in the US. If you are targeting, say ju…

A few years ago I briefly had some business interactions with iRoko in New York, and when I saw the title of this article I immediately thought what you did. I think the biggest challenge they discussed with me at the time was a mobile first market, but it was a few years ago.

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#32

Post by sctb » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 5:20 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #16

Title doesn’t make sense ending in a question mark. How I imagine it in my head: Person A: “What should we call this submission to HN?” Person B: “I’m not sure. How I lost $10k building an African Netflix?” Person A: Great! Let me copy that verbatim, including your question mark out of context.

Thanks, we've updated the headline?

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#33

Post by Grue3 » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

selimthegrim wrote: post #21

vezycash wrote: post #6

Summary: Hosting videos is expensive. Especially when there is no revenue. The founder is Nigerian and I'm assuming the initial market was Nigeria where most people still prefer cash, face to face payment to credit/debit card payments. The fact that the largest eCommerce site in the country still has pay on delivery speaks volumes. As said in the article, if they'd used Youtube as their host for videos, cost would ha…

Doesn’t Flipkart still have pay on delivery too?

I think anything in Japan has pay on delivery as well.

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#34

Post by blueboo » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 6:52 PM UTC

10k, so...a couple weeks of a single professional engineer?

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#35

Post by gambiting » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 7:51 PM UTC

Grue3 wrote: post #33

selimthegrim wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t Flipkart still have pay on delivery too?

I think anything in Japan has pay on delivery as well.

In Poland pay on delivery is still insanely popular and every single delivery company offers it as a payment method. Even international conglomerates like DHL/DPD/UPS will happily accept payment on delivery.

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#36

Post by gambiting » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

blueboo wrote: post #34

10k, so...a couple weeks of a single professional engineer?

Don't forget that not everyone lives in the US. 10k USD would get you a professional developer for about 3 months in Poland and more depending on how far East you're willing to go. Hell, I'm a professional developer in the UK and 10k USD is my salary for about 2 months(pre-tax).

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#37

Post by jameane » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 8:17 PM UTC

No shocker that this couldn't be monetized. It is really hard to make money in the film business - even doing full length movies. Distribution is hard. And short films aren't super popular with audiences.

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#38

Post by vmarsy » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

jkuria wrote: post #25

Hmmh, I though Jason Njoku's irokoTV was doing really well? Isn't it the same concept? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Njoku I guess they target Africans in the diaspora, who have much more disposable income. It is very tough to succeed targeting Africans in Africa without first focusing on a specific country. By the way, I see this phenomenon a lot with African restaurants in the US. If you are targeting, say ju…

> By the way, I see this phenomenon a lot with African restaurants in the US. If you are targeting, say just Nigerians or Kenyans, your restaurant will fail 100%.

> They are not enough of them and are often unappreciative and judgemental--complaining it is not like their mother's cooking!

> The African restaurants that succeed make it exotic and exciting enough to appeal to Americans and the broader populace. They may invent dishes or create a 'fusion' menu but who cares! After all, there is no "General Tso's" chicken in China!

is Ethiopian cuisine special here? I see 100% Ethiopian restaurants on the west coast, and they seem successful, without having to go the 'fusion' route.

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#39

Post by charliebrownau » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

Will the shows be about Black South Africans killing White south AFricans farmers and then blaming Western Society for cylons ?

Re: Hubrif: Lost $10K Building the Netflix for African Short Films

#40

Post by jschwartzi » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

scrooched_moose wrote: post #5

dajohnson89 wrote: post #2

Too bad I never even heard of this. I'd pay $10-15/month for a service which had world/indie/fringe cinema all in one place. edit: the closest i've found, is Kanopy[0]. which is free with a library card. (with NYPL, i get 10 titles/month). [0]: https://www.kanopy.com/

The Criterion Channel streaming service launches today. This will make all of their library available again, after FilmStruck got shut down by the AT&T/Time Warner purchase. https://www.criterionchannel.com/browse Launch lineup and initial rollout plan here: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6258-lusty-pre-code-...

Cool! I can watch Akira Kurosawa movies online again!