African Digital Video Service Records Half-Million Users

NEW YORK: iROKOtv, which is billed as the "Netflix of Africa," has notched up more than 500,000 registered users in less than six months since its launch.

iROKOtv is Africa’s first legal online source for Nollywood films. The company has the backing of $8 million in funding from the U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global, which was an early investor in Facebook. iROKOtv has had viewers logging in from more than 178 countries around the world. More than 9.3 million hours of Nollywood movies have been watched via the service since it’s launch.

Jason Njoku, the CEO and founder of iROKO Partners, said: “What an incredible six months it has been for iROKOtv—500,000 registered users in under six months is an awesome feat for us. We are a relatively young start-up and are super excited to have built up such momentum in such a short space of time.
 
“The secret of our success to-date is pretty simple; we love what we do, we love Nollywood movies and so do our 500,000 registered subscribers. Content is king and we are unrivalled in what we can offer from our 5,000-strong movie library. The iROKOtv team uploads movies onto the site every single week, so our fans, who we know have a voracious appetite for all things Nollywood, have a constant stream of awesome content at their fingertips.
 
“Nollywood is a global phenomenon—our fans are scattered all over the world and had previously struggled to get hold of any movies. The iROKOtv platform enables them to watch classic and new films, on a safe, easy to use, beautifully designed site, whether they are on a computer, tablet or on their mobile phone—anywhere in the world. Nollywood has never been so accessible and this is only the beginning for us.”