How Prime Video failed so spectacularly in Africa

Richard first heard about Amazon’s plans to lay off “several hundred” employees across its Prime Video and MGM Studios divisions in South Africa on January 10. A film development executive at Prime Video in Cape Town, Richard felt confident that the job cuts would not impact him. After all, he had been brought into the role less than two years ago.

But a week later, the dreaded pink slip arrived in his inbox.

“Being sacked barely two years after joining the company is unbelievable,” Richard, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym to protect his future job prospects, told Rest of World. “Many of us employees in South Africa were hired in 2022. Didn’t the company think long-term about the African market before making the hirings?”

In January this year, Amazon abruptly announced its decision to scale back Prime Video’s operations in Africa and the Middle East. The company said it would no longer fund local original content in Africa, as part of a plan to “prioritize resources on what matters most to customers” and “focus on the areas that drive the highest impact and long-term success.”

African filmmakers and industry experts believe Prime Video failed on the continent due to its inability to understand what the audience wanted, inadequate marketing, and poor user experience. It didn’t help that Netflix and local on-demand streaming platform, ShowmaxiShowmaxLaunched in South Africa in 2015, Showmax is a streaming service that focuses on local content and is available across Africa.READ MORE, have been making a big push to win the market, which is projected to have 15 million subscribers by 2026.

“Amazon Prime couldn’t compete well because it lacked a good understanding of the market and did not give itself enough time to evolve,” Nigerian entertainment journalist Tofarati Ige told Rest of World. “I don’t think it had a long-term plan for the market. Netflix, on the other hand, has several original African content and still commissions to date. Netflix also developed great relationships with actors [and] mounted attention-grabbing billboards and social media posts with humorous messages that resonate with the public.”

Prime Video did not respond to Rest of World’s requests for comment. Netflix also declined comment for this story. Showmax CEO Marc Jury told Rest of World that the complexity of the African streaming market might have contributed to Prime Video’s exit.

“Streaming is a competitive market, and Africa is a complicated marketplace, with multiple cultures and unique payment and data challenges … we’ve seen a lot of competitors come and go,” he said. “There are always new entrants with new content, new products, new ways of doing things. We don’t believe this is a winner-takes-all sector; we know people subscribe to more than one streaming service.”

Prime Video and Netflix both entered Africa in 2016. But there was a visible difference in their approach toward the continent right from the beginning, Oluseyi Asurf, a Nigerian film producer who has made movies for both platforms, told Rest of World.

“When I downloaded the Prime Video app, most of the content on it was Indian movies. It was unlike Netflix at launch,” Asurf said. “Another concern for me was the user interface — it was poorly designed.”

Netflix also beat Prime Video to the release of local original content, starting with South African crime show Queen Sono in January 2020.

In December 2021, Prime Video signed a multi-year licensing deal with Inkblot, a Nigerian production company. In August 2022, it signed a three-year deal with Nigerian filmmaker Jadesola Osiberu to produce a series of TV shows and movies for the platform.

Prime Video released its first African original movie, Gangs of Lagos, just last year.

In February 2023, Prime Video signed a licensing agreement with South African production company Known Associates. The deal granted the platform exclusive access to more than 20 South African feature films.

“We now have a dedicated local content strategy for the [African] continent across the board — from originals to be developed and produced by Amazon Studios to an exciting licensing slate with top-tier producers,” Ned Mitchell, Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ head of original productions for Africa and the Middle East, had said at the time.

Prime Video also hired locally and put together dedicated teams for Nigeria and South Africa, its two biggest markets, Mitchell said. It also considered creating an operational base in Lagos — home to Nollywood, Nigeria’s burgeoning film industry.

In July 2023, Prime Video released its first unscripted African original, LOL: Last One Laughing Naija. The Nigerian series was an adaptation of its globally successful comedy franchise currently produced in over 20 countries and territories.

But while Netflix came out guns blazing to promote Queen Sono — with billboards, social media campaigns, and specially commissioned murals inspired by the show around Johannesburg — Prime Video’s marketing was inadequate, said Asurf. “After three or so days of release, people don’t talk much about films on Prime Video,” he said. “There is always engagement around content on Netflix, even if it’s a low-budget movie.”

The lack of marketing left viewers struggling to find content they were interested in. “I couldn’t find content that appealed to me,” Mfundo Khumalo, who had subscribed to Prime Video for two years, told Rest of World. 

It has always been hard to find African content on the Prime Video app, film critic and journalist Kelechi Njoku told Rest of World. “The UX [user experience] was poor. On the app, it was pretty difficult to find a show,” he said. “I had to manually search for the title of a movie or series that I was looking for. I think the platform would have gotten far if it was intentional about the [African] market.”

By November 2023, Prime Video had become a distant third player in Africa, with just 5.6% of the market share. Meanwhile, Netflix controlled 33.5% of the market, while local player Showmax led the pack with 39%.

In the seven years it operated in Africa, Prime Video did so little that African filmmakers will not miss it — especially given the ascent of Showmax, Anita Eboigbe, a Nigerian film industry analyst, told Rest of World. “I don’t think Africa has a film distribution problem anymore,” she said. “We’ve seen Showmax stepping up and showing dedication to produce diverse African stories and showing a better approach along the line.”

Prime Video’s user base in Africa could decline further due to its decision to cut investments, Eboigbe said. According to Richard, who hasn’t found another job yet, the platform has no future on the continent.

“You need to realize that the platform’s decision seems like an insult to many Africans,” he said. “If you’re not going to be commissioning their local content, then don’t expect them to give you their money. Showmax and Netflix will continue to draw attention because they regard the African people.”