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By Chinenye Anuforo
The promotion of the rich diversity of YouTube’s creator and artist community is crucial in ensuring that YouTube is inclusive and equitable.
YouTube is a platform that celebrates a broad and diverse set of voices. It is committed to helping the continent’s creators to thrive. In the past few years, the company has embarked on initiatives with the purpose of upskilling creators in Africa and helping them increase their content’s reach and earning potential.
African investment
Since the 2020 launch of the #YouTubeBlack Voices programme, creators from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have been selected to participate in programmes (and benefit from funding) earmarked to help amplify their fresh narratives and highlight their intellectual power and authenticity.
The YouTubeBlack Voices Creator Class of 2021 comprised 19 creators and four artists from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), among 132 creators from across the world, while the YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022 included SSA artists, songwriters and producers, including rising acts like Nigeria’s Ckay and Omah Lay and South Africa’s Major League DJz.
More recently, as part of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Class of 2022, 133 creators (26 from SSA – 4 KE, 11 NG, 11 ZA) from around the world were selected to participate in this year’s edition of the initiative dedicated to equipping up-and-coming black creators and artists with the resources to thrive on the platform.
On a global scale, over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. There are localised versions of YouTube in 100 countries around the world across 80 languages, covering 95 per cent of all Internet traffic.
Additionally, more than 70% of watchtime happens on mobile devices while YouTube watchtime on mobile app devices averages more than 60 minutes per day. Watchtime on YouTube on television screens alone now tops over 250 millio hours per day.
With a mission to give everyone a voice and show them the world, YouTube serves over 2 billion monthly logged in users and people watching over a billion hours of video, not to mention, the billions of views generated daily.
