YouTube Nigeria has rewarded local creators with Gold and Silver Play Buttons as its week kicked off on Monday night.
The YouTube Partnerships Manager, Addy Awofisayo, made this known at a media event in Lagos where the Play Buttons were presented to the local creators.
According to her, the Gold Play Buttons are awarded to channels which have reached the one million subscriber’s mark, and Silver to those who have garnered 100,000 subscribers.
Awofisayo noted that YouTube presented a Gold Play Button to Flavour and Silver Play Buttons to Neptune3 Studios, D’banj, 2Baba Idibia, Teni and Adekunle Gold.
“YouTube Nigeria kicked off a whole week of activities, content premieres and fans’ meeting in Lagos with the award of a number of Gold and Silver Play Buttons to local YouTube creators.
“YouTube week is the celebration of creators, story tellers, everyone that broadcast content on video. We want to show the world what these guys are doing in YouTube and be a part of their success story.
“During the week, we will be running a creators’ boot camp where 20 creators are picked for training on everything that is necessary to accelerate their growth on YouTube.’’ she said.
According to her, our aim is to make sure that everyone is successful on YouTube because it is an amazing platform where you reach your global audience.
“Like if you are a creator in Port Harcourt, you can have an audience all the way from India through YouTube. We want to give people an opportunity to be successful on YouTube.
“We want to train them, equip them with the resources and all necessary information so that they can be successful on YouTube,’’ she said.
Awofisayo said that the week was only observed in Nigeria and was hoping to be scaled up to other markets soon.
She said that the week-long boot camp for YouTube creators which started on Monday would culminate in a graduation ceremony and wrap party on June 21.
Awofisayo said that the bootcamp was covering topics like channel & content strategy, working with brands, creator responsibility, production and accelerating growth on YouTube.
She mentioned that a public YouTube Master Class would be held on Saturday for registered participants.
Awofisayo said that a lot of people in the boot camp revealed that YouTube was their full time job because that was how they make their money, get brand partnerships, monetise their content and live their livelihood.
She urged young Nigerians that had graduated from the university and have not got the full time regular nine to five job; that have passion in tailoring, makeup, to utilise YouTube to broadcast themselves and slowly, would start getting views and interest in what they are doing.
She said that for one to start earning money, one needed to get a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to be eligible for monetisation.
“Throughout the week, YouTube Nigeria will premiere new original series including the D’Banj ‘Adventures KokoMaster’ series premiere on Monday.
“The ‘Brotherhood’ series premiere from Accelerate TV on Tuesday; the SceneOne ‘Ayetoro’ series premiere on Wednesday; and an evening with Tuface Idibia (2Baba) on Thursday.
“Fans will have a chance to meet, greet and engage with their favourite creators this week too, daily. Creators such as Abisola Aiyeola, Tobi Bakre, Layefa Beauty, and Zeelicious Foods will be engaging and interacting with fans,’’ she said.
Awofisayo said that since its launch in Nigeria in 2011, they had provided a platform for Nigerians to share the country’s unique and diverse culture on a global stage and also offer Nigerian users more relevant contents.
She said that over 5,000 hours of contents are uploaded to YouTube every minute as YouTube attracted a global generation that had grown up watching what they want, whenever they want, on whatever device was closest.
“Nigeria has a culture that is steeped in sharing and story-telling and Nigerians are passionate about music, entertainment and education.”
“What happens on YouTube is a reflection of what is important and relevant to the world.
“ YouTube has the largest and most passionate community where people gather and express themselves, share experiences and reflect on what they think about and care about moment to moment.
“We are very excited, this week, to bring YouTube’s creator community and fans together to share, learn and celebrate YouTube and the Nigerian creators who are taking our culture to the world,” Awofisayo said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that YouTube launched in May 2005, is the world’s most popular online video community allowing billions of people to discover, watch and share video. (NAN)
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
