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SA’s wildlife YouTube channel breaks a billion
Latest Sightings, the pioneering wildlife community started by a schoolboy, this week became the first South African YouTube channel to reach a billion views. ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK speaks to its founder.
Ossendryver is under no illusions that YouTube is the only game in town.
“I think Twitch and Tiktok and even Facebook video can be quite big threats to YouTube. YouTube is ultimately a platform that creators use to start their businesses. But breaking out on YouTube has become extremely hard, as almost every single creator in the world is trying to do that.
“You are competing with others, plus their algorithm. Not only that, advertising cost per thousand views has dropped significantly over the past few years, which is driving lots of people away.
“Facebook, on the other hand, is a whole new world. Pages with only a few thousand followers can generate millions of Facebook video views, which sometimes aren’t as ‘genuine’ as one YouTube view, but the cost per thousand is substantial, and 1-million views on Facebook can also generate around 1,000-10,000 new page likes, whereas a million views for us on Youtube will only gain a few hundred new subscribers.”
The big new name in video sharing is the fast-rising Chinese app Tiktok. Ossendryver is paying attention.
“TikTok is a new platform for us, so I haven’t had so much experience. But I am noticing that TikTok is driving new users. We have only around 300 followers on TikTok, but they are pushing our content, to get thousands of views sometimes. This is a big motivator and will help TikTok grow. They just need to work on their monetisation strategy.”
At a billion views, Ossendryver seems to have cracked that code. The Latest Sightings operation now includes travel bookings and merchandise. The most unlikely development would be if Ossendryver sat back to savour his success.
“What’s next for us is definitely still working on expanding our community to more parks. This will be the biggest driver of great content.”
Click here to read how to build an online community.
