IROKOtv doubles down on dollar-paying users as it denies reports of a shutdown
Twelve-year-old African streaming platform IROKOtv has denied shutting down operations after its website went offline and its mobile app disappeared from the Apple and Android app stores. That disappearance, alongside muted communication across its social media handles, triggered speculation that the service was on the verge of collapse.
“I am trying to find a way to make sure that they do not charge me again to renew my subscription,” said Kiki, a South African user who was neither able to operate her app nor redownload it from the Android Play Store. Other subscribers who use iPhones have not been able to redownload them from the Apple App Store for as long as five months now. Many users trace the malfunction back to as far back as June, the last time the company published a new movie on the platform. ”They had promised us that they would publish new movies every week. But since June, they have been publishing old movies,” Dinma, another user, told TechCabal.
However, in a conversation with TechCabal, Jason Njoku, IROKOtv’s CEO, denied the shutdown claims and explained that the company’s services went offline due to an ongoing migration. “We’ve been migrating platforms for the last few weeks, so the site has been in maintenance mode,” he said.
In August 2020, IROKOtv declared its decision to halt its expansion into Africa, simultaneously announcing the layoff of 150 employees.
The migration is near completion, he claims, explaining that the engineering pivot was necessary to ensure IROKOtv becomes accessible on smart TVs, a fast-growing segment among streaming companies. He expects the streaming platform will become accessible as quickly as this week, and the company expects to go live on smart TVs, including Roku, LG, and Samsung, by the end of the year.
In 2011, the primary goal of IROKOtv was to revolutionize African entertainment by providing a platform for Nollywood movies and TV shows to reach audiences worldwide. IROKOtv successfully secured a total of $42 million in investment capital from both domestic and international investors.
Source: Techcabal