Eastleigh content creators welcome new Facebook monetisation opportunities

Eastleigh content creators have welcomed Meta's announcement that Kenyan content creators can now monetise their content on Facebook. This development marks a significant shift for many local creators who have faced challenges in earning revenue from their work.

Ahmed Mohamed, a prominent content creator in Eastleigh, expressed relief over this new opportunity. He mentioned that the difficulties in getting paid on Facebook will now be resolved.

Ahmed, along with other creators, has rented an office on 12th Street in Eastleigh. They gather there daily to produce content for various social media platforms.

Until now, most of these content creators have primarily shared their content on YouTube. However, with Facebook's new monetisation features, they plan to expand their efforts to this platform.

"Some of us have Facebook pages that we used to monetise through other means, but most content creators here are YouTubers. Now, everyone will put more effort into Facebook," Ahmed explained.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced on Tuesday that features such as In-Stream Ads on Facebook and Facebook Ads on Reels will enable creators in Kenya to earn money by producing original videos and building their communities.

Mohamed Abdirahman, another content creator, sees this as an opportunity for full employment. He plans to dedicate all his efforts to content creation. Mohamed noted that viewership on YouTube has been declining, which has affected their earnings.

With Facebook now offering monetisation, he hopes to boost his income. "The number of YouTube users has been reducing. There are more people on Facebook, and I think that will be my next investment," he said.

Cukash Sheikh, a leader among content creators in Eastleigh, shared his optimism with the Eastleigh Voice. He believes this change will alleviate many of the challenges they have faced in making money from their content on Facebook.

"We hope to make good use of Facebook's monetisation features," he said.

Previously, Cukash and other content creators had to rely on individuals with connections abroad, typically in Europe or America, to facilitate the monetisation process. These overseas contacts would open bank accounts where Facebook payments could be received. Additionally, they would purchase and maintain computers equipped with remote access software.

Whenever a content creator in Nairobi wanted to upload a video to Facebook to earn money, they had to remotely access the computer abroad to do so. This process was not only tiresome and cumbersome but also left Eastleigh-based creators dependent on their overseas contacts. These contacts could arbitrarily shut down the computer or delay payments, adding uncertainty and frustration to the content creators' efforts.

With Meta's new monetisation features, these hurdles are expected to disappear. Content creators in Eastleigh can now directly earn from their work on Facebook without relying on intermediaries.

This development is likely to encourage more content creators to join the platform and invest their time and resources into creating high-quality content. To monetise their content on Facebook, creators must have 5,000 followers on the platform and achieve 60,000 total viewership over the last two months.

Facebook is the most popular social application in Kenya, used by at least 52 per cent of Kenyans above 15 years old, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya.

Until now, YouTube and X have been the only social media applications that allowed Kenyans to earn from sharing revenues from advertisements.