A new social video platform, indi.com and mobile app, has launched in Africa, offering brands an innovative, next generation conduit to reach the continent’s massive Millennial market, along with all-important user engagement.
Developed in Southern California over three years, Indi.com is the world’s first digital talent discovery platform and, after its successful launch in the USA and in India (where it is backed by Bollywood star, Anil Kapoor), is being launched this month by Celebrity Services Africa (CSA.Global).
“Considering that there are more than 367 million active mobile subscribers in Africa – a figure projected to grow by 400 million new connections by 2020 – there is no better way or time for brands to spread their reach in and across Africa and really engage with these users,” says CSA.Global director Davin Phillips.
“As it is not limited to geo-location, there are no boundaries to the amount of talent who want to showcase what they’ve got. Think Idols, think the Voice, think (Africa’s) Got Talent – but all from one platform, in Africa, on your mobile phone,” adds Davin Phillips.
Notably from a tech perspective, Indi is the only platform that can aggregate all social media channels onto one site and has a unique algorithm that can track and calculate a user’s social engagement across their social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and display the result as “buzz points” on one dashboard.
On Indi.com, brands and celebrities initiate a variety of fun challenges and anyone can participate by uploading original videos via their Smartphones or on Indi.com and sharing it to all their social platforms.
Winners are then chosen based on talent as well as the amount of social “buzz” (likes, comments, shares, views) their video generates, all of which is displayed on their Indi channel dashboard.
To ensure that challenges are completely safe, all content is pre-screened before publication. The site does not allow any viewer comments about content, which in turn gives users the freedom to post and express themselves without the fear of being ridiculed.
Furthermore, extensive fraud protection systems have been patented and put into place to prevent any corrupt activities during a challenge’s voting process.