Scrolling through ZimboTube left me with mixed feelings. The website is well designed and works well enough but I also can’t help but feel the same way I’ve felt about apps like Sasai, Magaya’s Let’s Chat and Ndeip. These are all decent applications but they don’t incentivise users to flee from the giants they’ve become accustomed to.
As mentioned before, the interface for ZimboTube is pretty good and on that front, it doesn’t feel raw at all. Heck, it even has dark modes which some popular video sharing sites don’t have (Daily Motion – I’m looking at you).
Most of the YouTube-y stuff has been kept around as well; you can
- subscribe to channels you like,
- like videos you enjoy,
- notifications
- sending messages on the platform
- Create playlists
Beyond, having features we’ve come to expect on YouTube my biggest reservation about the platform is that the incentive for creators to join seems minimal (right now). The platform doesn’t seem to have any adverts which means monetization is not possible right now.
Without the promise of revenue and a smaller audience to boot, I don’t see how the ZimboTube gets content creators to prioritise them. If content creators don’t prioritise them what will users turn to them for? That’s the biggest question ZimboTube has to answer and if they manage to do so they might be on to something.
