Swedish Audio streaming and media service provider Spotify has announced that it will launch video streaming in 11 countries worldwide, with Kenya being the only nation in Africa.
The platform seeks to edge out YouTube which has monopolized the audio-visual space in the world.
“We’re excited to launch music videos in beta for Spotify Premium users across 1 market, adding another way to enhance the artist-to-fan connection,” Spotify wrote in a statement.
Other than Kenya, countries that get this streaming video privilege include the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines and Indonesia.
This may affect YouTube’s operations in the market, since introducing the premium service YouTube Music, which still lags behind Spotify audio in terms of market share. The Swedish streaming company acknowledges Kenya as a huge market for its operations in Africa.
As per digital monitoring firm Meltwater, users aged 16 and 64 years pay for audio streaming services accounting for 9.4% of internet users in the bracket.
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Concurrently, a third of Kenyans with internet access listen to a music streaming service at least once a week. Kenya takes pole position in these statistics with Nigeria following close by with 35% using streaming platforms.
YouTube dominates the global video streaming market, largely owing to music videos, which are one of the most watched content types on the Google-owned platform.
The company’s Vice President, Charlie Heliman noted that the music videos added to Spotify were a means to enhance user experience. They aim to transition users “from being a listener to leaning in and becoming a fan.”
