In this episode, we explore entertainment for mass-market consumers in Africa with Guy Kamgaing, the Founder and CEO of StarNews Mobile.

Throughout the series of episodes, we're exploring the entrepreneurs in start-ups digitizing informal and fragmented industries on the continent. And in the media space, that means building a product fit for the realities of mass-market consumers. In a world of abundant free content on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and other "data guzzling" platforms, StarNews is building a business selling a la carte microcontent bundled with telco data, and they're selling it to millions of African consumers, while simultaneously helping creators make money off of their content, as well. 

04:05 - First question, what is StarNews' background story?
06:52 - A deeper dive into the product, from both the content development and distribution perspectives.
10:30 - Why would a consumer pay for content when so much free content is readily available elsewhere?
15:47 - A discussion on StarNews' growth, and expansion from Côte d'Ivoire, across Francophone African countries, to South Africa.
18:05 - On partnering with telcos.
20:29 - How are the streaming wars between Netflix and Disney influencing strategy, and why is StarNews investing in content development?

This episode is part of our conversational series sponsored by MFS Africa. MFS Africa's competition is with cash, and throughout this series, we'll feature other startups and entrepreneurs who are digitizing, better organizing, and aggregating analog and fragmented industries.

Follow The Flip on social media @theflipafrica.