Théophile Kouamouo has been a journalist for over 20 years. During his career, he has worked as a correspondent for Le Monde in Ivory Coast, Le Point, L'Humanité, Jeune Afrique, and Africa 24. He then became an entrepreneurial journalist, creating the Ivoire-blog.com platform with his wife, which no longer exists today.
Today, he is launching Afrospik
, an audio content aggregator targeting Africa and the diaspora, with the technology company REVERB.
You have just launched Afrospik. Can you tell us about this new project?
Afrospik is a podcast platform accessible via a website and also via a Google Play and iOS app. We realized that audio is part of African culture, particularly through radio.
What opportunities do you see in the podcast format?
There is a wide variety of radio content on the continent, which remains a powerful medium for all segments of the population, both in large cities and in villages.
In addition, we know that mobile phones are the primary device for consuming audio content. And this is likely to increase, as we will soon reach a 50% smartphone penetration rate. Finally, in terms of connectivity, infrastructure is advancing and gradually improving internet access on the continent.
As a result, there should be a convergence between smartphones and radio. In Africa, people already listen to the radio on their phones, but on FM. However, FM causes problems with live listening and remains limited in terms of geographical coverage, whereas podcasts can be listened to anytime, anywhere.
All these factors lead us to believe that the context is ideal for the development of the podcast format in Africa, even if there are still some obstacles.
What sets you apart from the platforms already on the market?
Most existing platforms offer their services for a fee. With Afrospik, we list and give visibility to podcasts from radio stations and content creators that target Africans. We allow them to host their podcasts for free, unlike other existing platforms that offer paid services. We will gradually offer advertising revenue opportunities as well as other forms of monetization, notably through partnerships with telecom players on the continent.
What type of content is currently available on your platform?
For the moment, our platform offers access to radio content such as KALAK FM, the main radio station in Yaoundé. We also have independent podcasts such as Jessica Brou's Conversation privée.
We also have adaptations such as that of Gassim Chérif, a young Chadian journalist who produces Facebook Live shows, and a Guinean web radio station in Fulani, because, beyond French-language content, we want to aggregate content in several African languages.
Today, we are more interested in aggregating content than producing it. Perhaps in the future we will consider producing our own content, but we are moving more towards producing content in partnership with players on the platform, particularly radio stations, because we believe that together we can build original content and capture a wider audience than their current audience.
Social media can be a good lever for increasing the visibility of audio content. How are you going to engage them?
Beyond wanting to establish a presence on social media, we must first and foremost imitate them! We need to understand why people consume so much content on social media, especially short content. We have observed that these short formats, also known as "shorts," are widely consumed and appreciated. We would like to incorporate this trend into our platform to improve the user experience.
How can we further "democratize" this format?
For the moment, we are in an observation phase and are taking the time to learn from our audience, but we are convinced of the potential of audio, a format that is more accessible than written content and easier to produce than audiovisual content, which requires a certain amount of resources. All that remains is to "evangelize" stakeholders about the opportunities associated with audio.