Linda Ikeji talks failing forward and future plans for LITV on Forbes Africa

Popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ifeoma Ikeji was featured on the latest issue of Forbes Africa Magazine, where she spoke about the efforts being put into making LITV a global brand, the lessons learned so far, and future plans.

The Linda Ikeji Media CEO, while speaking to Peace Hyde, revealed blogging was never part of her plans but when the opportunity presented itself, she grabbed it and made the most of it.

She said to Forbes Africa: “When I was growing up, blogging was never the plan, I wanted to be a TV journalist, a presenter or producer.”

Though she knew nothing about blogging at the time, she “learned so much, not only about writing engaging content, but also monetizing her talent,” Peace Hyde writes in the Forbes Africa article, adding that  Linda Ikeji “lives in a $2 million mansion in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Lagos, drives a $300,000 Bentley Mulsanne and most importantly, does exactly what she wants. And that includes creating her own social network, Linda Ikeji Social (LIS), a one-stop shop for everything people need when they go online.”

Lindai Ikeji said meeting fans who told her the Linda Ikeji blog and Facebook are the only sites they visit inspired the creation of LIS.

Explaining how LIS works, she said: “Instagram pays you more when you are a celebrity but our community was more for the everyday people. LIS was a small community for everybody. It is not just a social network but a combination of blogging with a social network in one package.”

The article goes on to state that, “Google ranked Ikeji one of the most searched personalities in the last decade, in Africa’s most populous economy. Ikeji has managed to reinvent herself over the years, establishing a brand as a successful businesswoman making telephone-digit figures per month blogging.

With the success of Linda Ikeji blog, the digital entrepreneur expanded her brand to include a subscription video on demand (SVOD) platform, called Linda Ikeji TV. So far, she has invested about $2 million of her own money into the platform and hopes LITV will be the Netflix of Africa.

As with every new venture, some lessons were learnt on the job and Linda Ikeji intends to apply those lessons to position LITV on the global stage.

She said: “Since the platform [LITV] was launched in June 2018, 162,000 people have passed through it and out of that 80,000 paid a N1,000 one-month subscription but not all of them renewed and we were not able to retain them.

“That was 100% our fault. We were not updating the site with new content because I had spent so much money creating the content we put on the site.

“Netflix puts about four new shows a day on their platform but we couldn’t keep up with that and by the third month, subscribers wanted something new and if there is nothing new, you will stop paying.

“So, this is very capital-intensive and we did research and realized in order to retain your subscribers, you have to give them new content every day.”

The LITV platform is currrently going through a site redesign and is launching in London in July and in the United States in August with new, original and licensed content as well.

“Her plan is to diversify her revenue stream by creating Nollywood movies for cinema release and reinvesting the proceeds back into her platform as well as looking for investors to scale the SVOD site,” the article adds.

Get the June issue of Forbes Africa magazine to read the rest of the article.