
OMG Digital (YC S16) Is BuzzFeed for Africa - stvnchn
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/07/omg-digital/
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tyre

      $1.3 trillion that the continent is projected to spend
      in 2020.
    

Please don't use statistics like this. The combined consumer spending of a
continent (54 separate countries, I think) is not really a fair portrayal of
the opportunity. The linked source notes that $200bn is projected to be
discretionary, which is closer to being relevant (as discretionary spending is
largely the target of advertisers.)

The real question, which that metric may have been trying to address, is the
purchasing power of the average consumer.

    
    
      From 1993 to 2008 the average per capita income of sub-Saharan
      African economies barely budged—it increased from $742 to $762
      per year (measured in 2005 purchasing-power parity-adjusted dollars).
      If we exclude South Africa and the Seychelles, we see a decline from
      $608 to $556 over the period.[0]
    

For individual spending that small, you (an company making money from ads)
either need:

a) Companies who have incredible operations to sell at scale across the
continent, given the low average customer value (e.g. Coca-Cola)

b) Many companies, each tackling local markets, that you (or an underlying ad
network) can reach effectively at scale

Are there examples of large corporate ad buys from (a) or an underlying
network for (b) in Africa?

[0]
[http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/01/incomes-...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/01/incomes-
sub-saharan-africa)

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yladiz
It's maybe not the best statistic, but many African countries are pushing for
a common currency, so it's not completely unjustified.

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bogomipz
You are correct its 54 states counting the latest addition South Sudan which
is looking like things are going to kick off there again any minute. So out of
that 54, 7 are failed states. Also I think the majority of Africa operates an
"informal economy" which calls into question the accuracy of those
projections.

I do wish them the best though. Also Kenya has become something of a startup
hub the last few years. I hope it continues. It's exciting to see Africa
represented in tech news.

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rosalinekarr
It's good to see a media startup getting some attention. Not every tech
company has to be some cutting-edge, shiny research project to be successful.
(In fact, most of them aren't.) There's nothing wrong building a business by
taking existing, time-tested technology and bringing it to a new, growing
market.

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true_religion
If they actually manage to combine Nigeria/Ghana and Kenya into one site I'm
going to be really impressed.

Primarily, because I know from personal experience that a lot of people on the
east side of Africa, do not actually care about random news on the west side
of Africa (reasonable considering the two sides are approximately 3000 miles
away from each other and have utterly dissimilar histories).

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Geekette
Interesting that it's described as currently catering to Kenya, Ghana and
Nigeria because the content is solely Ghana specific. These 3 countries also
have very different social perspectives and very different flavours of
entertainment and lifestyle. A number of popular sites also exist in this
niche targeted at each country. Likewise, the remaining 51 countries also have
significantly different cultures whose entertainment needs probably can't be
comprehensively addressed by a single site.

Edit: There's a different page for each country; I missed seeing the button to
select accordingly the first time through.

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shostack
I'm kind of surprised the name "OMG Digital" didn't raise any flags with legal
given OMG is what Omnicom Media Group is often referred to, and is the media
services division of Omnicom or OMD (one of the largest ad agency holding
companies).

Couldn't find any relationship between the two from a cursory look, but I'd be
shocked if they didn't have OMG trademarked in some form.

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danso
Is this one of the first media startups funded by YC?

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katm
In this batch of YC (Summer 2016), we also have The Athletic:
[https://theathletic.com/](https://theathletic.com/).

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pacificpelican
Maybe listicles like 10 ways Western oil companies committed atrocities in the
Niger Delta?

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DanBC
[http://omgvoice.com/](http://omgvoice.com/)

"This is how these famous Ghanaian men would look if they had dreadlocks"

"Different Kinds Of Women You’ll Find In A Typical Ghanaian Church"

"13 Times The English Language Made Absolutely No Sense At All"

I mean, good luck to them and everything.

(EDIT: This post sounds grumpier than I intended it to.)

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koolba
> I mean, good luck to them and everything.

Rule #1: Build something that people want!

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jswny
I don't exactly agree with BuzzFeed's business practices because it uses a lot
of clickbait tactics. For that reason this comparison carries a sort of
negative connotation, although I understand it.

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ahoy
Putting aside your "that damn liberal media!" misgivings, of course they
compare themselves to buzzfeed. I had zero idea what LadBible was until your
post, I know exactly what buzzfeed is.

There's a reason that "Uber for X" is a bit of a meme, but "Lyft for X" isn't.

