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Bozza Wants To Be Africa's Answer To iTunes, Spotify and Netflix

Posted by samzenpus on from the grabbing-the-market dept.

Mickeycaskill writes: South African startup Bozza has grand ambitions of becoming a trusted platform for pan-African music, video and poetry, with artists keeping 70 percent of revenues. Whereas Netflix and Spotify can deliver high quality streams to users in North America and Europe with superfast fixed and 4G connections, 50 percent of Bozza's traffic comes from feature phones. Data compression technology and transcoding techniques try and keep costs down, while Africa's mobile market is much less app-centric. Bozza founder Emma Kaye explains how she plans to help turn Bozza into a major medium platform.

42 comments

  1. Ummm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Are iTunes, Spotify and Netflix all banned on the African continent?

    1. Re:Ummm... by a.koepke · · Score: 2
      Wow, I have heard of not reading the article (that is par for the course!), but not even reading the summary?

      Whereas Netflix and Spotify can deliver high quality streams to users in North America and Europe with superfast fixed and 4G connections, 50 percent of Bozza's traffic comes from feature phones.

      The people who wish to access these services don't have devices that are compatible or have very limited network speeds which aren't sufficient. Bozza is targeting this gap in the market and using various methods to make content available to these basic devices.

      --


      (\(\
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      *This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread
    2. Re:Ummm... by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      Are iTunes, Spotify and Netflix all banned on the African continent?

      Banned is the wrong word.

      The rights holders seldom sell the full international distribution rights to all the online services. This is why if you're in the UK, Netflix only has a fraction of what's available if you're in the US (at least, this was last year, I don't know if it's still the case right now). And this is why in most countries, you can't get Netflix or Spotify at all, unless you pay with an American credit card or some other foreign credit card, and then use a VPN to tunnel through to the service.

      And then again, some of those services simply do not care about the parts of the African continent, that do not have high bandwidth, or that still pay for bandwidth by the Kb.

    3. Re:Ummm... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      it is the case and Netflix in Finland is only a portion of whats in the UK. it's due to country by country selling of rights to shows to maximize consumer happ... haha to maximize profits and price discrimination by treating every country as a place where you can have a bidding war where to get one good show a tv station has to bid for a package that includes 90% shit.

      anyways, HOPEFULLY the EU rules hopefully coming into effect will make it so that netflix content etc would be the same to every country.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:Ummm... by marsu_k · · Score: 1

      Or in the meantime get a VPN. I feel my Netflix subscription is much more justified with a VPN, even accounting for the monthly fee for the VPN.

    5. Re:Ummm... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      In the African continent, people have different tastes in music, and probably don't want a pile of steaming hot American crap.

      The above services probably have little or no modern African content, and lack the skill to acquire it.

      However, given that Africans are accustomed to the very lowest quality of pirate CDs, it will be interesting to see if they will pay for services offering music they want at a marginally better quality (assuming network coverage permits). The problem is not going to be lack of smart phones, but the fact that data is so expensive in Africa, probably because the networks want to make sure that VoIP costs more than a normal phone call.

      In summary: Spotify won't work because they have the wrong catalogue. Bazza won't work because you can probably buy three copies of the music on CD for the cost of the data to stream it once, and the connection will keep dropping.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    6. Re:Ummm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Africa's answer to ITunes is the same answer as everything else. Millions of starving, corrupt, AIDS infested, un-evolving humans just waiting for the next Bill Gates to hand out a free laptop that can be melted down after its finished with it's batch of fishing emails. What a shithole! It makes Australia seem civilized.
      You might think this is an ignorant answer if your the type of rube that pays for anchor babies, but believe me, unlike you. I have been there, and can testify why the economy collapsed after the slave trade was displaced by serfs who were willing to pay for their own room and board. And Obamacare.

    7. Re: Ummm... by buchanmilne · · Score: 1

      iTunes is available in South Africa (without any tricks, you pay in ZAR, vouchers are available in most stores ). I think some video content that is available in the US isn't available in the South African iTunes store due to regional exclusive rights belonging to other players (satellite providers such as DStv), but I believe all music is avilable.

      Google Play Music and Amazon Prime aren't available. Spotify isn't available without DNS tricks, but Deezer is.

      A few video streaming providers operate in SA, including the recently-launched Showmax.

  2. I wonder if it will offer international access? by dwywit · · Score: 1

    I'd subscribe just to get access to the music.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    1. Re:I wonder if it will offer international access? by dwywit · · Score: 1

      I mean, international access outside of africa. Obviously there is already international access.

      I wonder what the majors will have to say about this?

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    2. Re:I wonder if it will offer international access? by dwywit · · Score: 1

      I just went to the website and clicked on the player for the free stream. The first track sounded very much like rap. So did the second track. And the third track, and the fourth track.

      If I want to listen to hip-hop/rap, I'll listen to a hip-hop/rap station - not one that claims to play african music.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    3. Re:I wonder if it will offer international access? by Knuckles · · Score: 2

      If I want to listen to hip-hop/rap, I'll listen to a hip-hop/rap station - not one that claims to play african music.

      What did you think, that all of African music is beating drums?

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    4. Re:I wonder if it will offer international access? by dwywit · · Score: 1

      Hell no. From my limited exposure (hence the desire to hear more of it), there's an enormous variety of styles - modern/pop, tribal (for want of a better word), protest, rock, and yes, even rap. But what I heard earlier this afternoon had little to distinguish it from what I've heard on american - specifically USofA - rap-focussed stations.

      I'd like to hear some variety - as I said above, there were 4 sequential tracks of rap, and that's where I lost interest.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    5. Re:I wonder if it will offer international access? by Knuckles · · Score: 1

      Yeah, sorry for being harsh, but you implied that rap/hip-hop could not be African music, which was pretty stupid.

      I don't know, maybe they have different genres on the stream during the day, and African hip hop as as much right to be on the stream as anything else. Right now the current and next 5 tracks are not hip hop.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  3. But will it play in the Belgian Congo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a tough crowd.

    1. Re:But will it play in the Belgian Congo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if it also travels backwards in time

    2. Re:But will it play in the Belgian Congo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Belgium is no more? Who own the Belgian Congo now?

    3. Re:But will it play in the Belgian Congo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congolese Republic

    4. Re:But will it play in the Belgian Congo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boocu Harem.

      Literally, Lotta Pussy.

  4. Re:I wonder if it will offer dumbass douchebags? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, international access outside of africa. Obviously there is already international access.

    So... it took you 25 minutes to realize that Africa is a continent and not a single country?

  5. Re:I wonder if it will offer dumbass douchebags? by dwywit · · Score: 1

    I made a mistake, then acknowledged it and rectified it. Not sure what your point is?

    Are you trying to imply that I'm ignorant? At least I don't post AC. When will you correct that fault?

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  6. Re:I wonder if it will offer international FUCKYOU by dwywit · · Score: 2

    My, what an erudite response. Why deign to descend and partake of discourse with we mere plebeians, when you have such a command of the language?

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  7. Problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Please only post links to articles if they contain photos of the women in the stories. The internet is a picture book for many people and the stories need to gratify the readers.

  8. The Poor Don't Pay, They Pirate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of the relatively few benefits of living in a developing or underdeveloped country is very under developed laws regarding copyright, especially making copies for personal use or small scale commercial distribution. You see this everywhere in countries like Cuba, Mexico and also in African countries like Kenya, Tunisia and Egypt. Why subscribe to some crap service when you can buy a USB stick, SD card or DVDs loaded with software, movies, music or other content for $1 in any market or bazaar? In Mexico the drug gangs run the counterfeit media racket as a side business and the local police get a cut to look the other way. The US government and media complains complain and so they occasionally stage raids, which the sellers know about in advance, for the news but mostly it's business as usual and nobody in Mexico gives a crap about ripping off American movies, music and films. In Brazil, the official media is so outrageously expensive that almost the entire country gets by on counterfeit goods, even when buying from regular above-board shops in malls and such. It should be clear to anyone with a brain that in markets outside of the United States and Europe, the pirate ship has long since sailed.

    1. Re:The Poor Don't Pay, They Pirate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A streaming service customized for low bandwidth is a niche service. Given the limited network technology available there is a market.

    2. Re:The Poor Don't Pay, They Pirate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The rich don't pay either, they lobby or socialize the cost.

  9. Re:I wonder if it will offer international FUCKYOU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why deign to descend and partake of discourse with we mere plebeians, when you have such a command of the language?

    Indeed, one wonders which vaunted institution of higher learning this person matriculated to acquire such a refined taste for the obscene.

  10. Re:This haiku should be on Bozza! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shit covered penis
    Fresh out of a man's anus
    Sucky sucky good.

  11. I don't think regional platforms are viable by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    ... absent legal barriers. Why would Africa need their own? they don't need their own version of the CPU. They don't need their own operating systems. They don't need their own word processors.

    They appropriate existing third world technology for all that stuff. So... why would they need a music platform?

    Possibly there is a licensing issue.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:I don't think regional platforms are viable by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Why do we need spotify? Why do we need itunes? I don't need them or use them.

      Your argument is like we should need only one type restaurant, just as happened after the Restaurant Wars in Demolition Man. Or we don't need an email provider because there is yahoo/microsoft/gmail.

      Doesn't stop the restaurants using the same technology such as dishes, salt and vinegar, or datacenters from using racks of x86 PCs and ethernet, or mobile phones from using ARM (or MIPS) and GSM, LTE, wifi.

    2. Re:I don't think regional platforms are viable by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      By the same token then why do you need whatever this new thing is?

      As to restaurants... you're talking apples and astronauts there. You can't compare a streaming music service with a restaurant. There's no commitment to a restaurant. The technological barriers are basically non-existent. you don't need to get everyone in the continent of africa to sign on to a restaurant to make it work but you do if you want your music streaming service to work. And no... i don't mean literally every single person... but most of them.

      There's just a lot more involved with setting up a streaming service that actually works and people actually want to use and actually has artists than you'd have to go through to set up ONE restaurant in ONE location that really just has to figure out how to get enough hungry people to sit down and order food on a regular basis to keep the doors open.

      Its not comparable.

      And as I said, the Africans are using American Search Engines, American designed computers, American designed operating systems... and your streaming service is going to be competing against American streaming services that got there first, are more established, have more artists signed to them, have likely better programmed software, have better hardware tie ins, have better industrial support, and those streaming services are offering their service at such a low price point that how do you expect to make any profit to keep your business going when you're competing against a more established industry, that is more innovative, more competitive, and if they feel threatened can out bid your artists to get them exclusively in one service or another to starve you out.

      Point being... there is a reason things work the way they do. I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I'm just saying... know what is on the other side of a door before you open it.

      The US has been holdings its own when it comes to software against the Japanese, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Indians, and all of Europe.

      We're good at what we do. Trust me.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    3. Re:I don't think regional platforms are viable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're assuming that whatever the US build is in some way universally applicable, the best or even desired. Most US companies pursue only the large and concentrated markets and leave the rest either under-serviced or with an often inferior product. There's little incentive for them to expend extra effort on localization for what's seen as limited additional growth/income.

      As a result there are many smaller, regional alternatives, often unknown to the US (which tends to be blinkered to anything else outside their borders). Both Google and Amazon are dwarfed by their eastern/oriental counterparts.

      Africa is huge, physically as well as in terms of diversity. The per capita income might not compare to the west, but there's more than enough money to be made or markets to service. Why should Africa export its art/music talent to the US and then have to pay royalties to licence it back?

      (Global) monopolies are bad, innovation thrives on competition.

  12. Dream on by BringMyShuttle · · Score: 1

    > Bozza Wants To Be Africa's Answer To iTunes, Spotify and Netflix

    Yeah, and I want to be the next Microsoft, but it ain't gunna happen! :-)

  13. Good on her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and them. I think Africa should try to own their own markets wherever and whenever they can, and I'm sure a lot of people would pay to get access to that whole musical culture, of which only a small part reaches us in the west.

  14. Re:I wonder if it will offer international FUCKYOU by dwywit · · Score: 1

    Oh, well done. I'd give you a mod point +1 Funny, were I not already part of the discussion.

    Well done, you. Keep it up and I look forward to more of your contributions. Nothing like joining the hoi-polloi for a bit of classy debate.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  15. Re:I wonder if it will offer dumbass douchebags? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NEVER! HAHAHAHA!

  16. I don't think non-regional platforms are viable by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I don't think non-regional platforms are viable because of legal barriers.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:I don't think non-regional platforms are viable by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Well, the likes of netflix, amazon, and itunes are crossing a lot of jurisdictions already and the status quo business and regulatory framework that the industries were used to is being phased out as they realize it makes piracy more of a problem.

      An issue for example was movies not all releasing at the same time. That wasn't a big deal before the internet. But now that it is you can't tolerate it.

      I think we're headed to a system where the internet is a jurisdiction unto itself in a lot of ways and thus able to transgress national borders on the general theory that it is the user that enters it and not the internet that enters the country... from a legal perspective.

      The companies and artists etc only care about being able to get paid. So long as they get paid they're going to be happy.

      The various governments have their own ideas about things... often they want things censored "because"... but the technology doesn't lend itself well to both connecting a country to the internet and yet having just your specific country censor X or Y. And the idea of getting the entire world to censor X or Y because your country doesn't like something... its a tough sell and practically isn't enforceable even if you can get the diplomats and then politicians to agree to it.

      We'll see. I don't care about this specific issue of course. Its just that I am dubious of their streaming service being able to function given the many problems they're going to deal with, the whole lets reinvent the wheel thing, and then what I have to assume is a much smaller market to ultimately support the whole thing.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  17. Re:I wonder if it will offer international FUCKYOU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Penis Cuck Pastard BUNT!!! Get it?

    Hint: I'm a toll and you're feeding me! Douchebag.