Social media platforms have been feeding our hunger for entertainment for over a decade now. Facebook made its debut -- 15 years ago -- on February 4, 2004. They went public, introducing worldwide users to the best method of socializing. Since its rapid growth, many bright minds have been able to start their own entertainment platforms through Facebook pages. At present, there is a vast network of people, who are making way more money than regular job holders by operating their Facebook pages, Instagram accounts or Youtube channels.
Sadly, this market is at an infant stage and is yet to grow in our country. There are many pages or channels being run by individuals who have their stock of mind-boggling content ready to be fed to the viewers. Aside from the successful entrepreneurs -- there are many who are not being able to reach their full potential. A lot of us might think that video-making is very easy -- upload it on a page and wait overnight for it to reach a million hits. Apparently, it is not! In order to make quality content, one at the least needs a basic set-up with proper equipment which the majority cannot really afford.
Notably, “Daekho” is the only platform in Bangladesh that runs as a traditional company. Daekho has two entities -- Daekho Tv and Daekhopedia -- which are being run by a team of 17 employees who claim to be ‘always in the zone’. Three editors, five program producers, three cinematographers, two graphics designers, and interns -- are the ones behind each one of their videos. Daekho kicked off in March 2018, under Qinetic Network -- a digital media company.
Daekho tv is a full-on entertainment platform built to deliver good humor to us -- the viewers. Alongside, daekhopedia is an information sharing field which shares current events, news, and anything that is important and needs to be spread out to the crowd. It started six months after Daekho entered the market and is gradually coming up to become a successful stage. There are many scaffolds within Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat with millions and millions of hits -- viewers enjoy catching up with anything that is trendy. This ends up creating a repetitive process where everyone is doing the same thing.
However, even though Daekho runs as an independent dais, they maintain a certain set of rules and regulations, so that the viewers do not think that their content is duplicated from other entities. Yet, as our culture is quite similar to the Indian culture, some content ends up matching Indian videos. Their prime focus currently is on content developing -- likes and views on their videos are not something they prioritize. Shoots take place whenever it seems perfect no matter how the environment or the set-up is -- they are always set to go.
In terms of revenue -- collaborations is one of the prime sources of income for Daekho. They have worked with quite a few renowned brands -- by developing content related to the brands which work as indirect marketing. Daekho is monetized on Facebook and YouTube as well which also contributes a major portion to the earnings. Pran, Yamaha, bKash, and Foodpanda have already worked with them and the Daekho team has delivered unique sponsored contents for these brands -- such posts penetrated the target market and the outreach was amazing.
The employees of the Daekho team says they are really happy with their jobs and income as well -- which is similar to any usual media house. Each of the members has their own platform aside Daekho, but they focus on building Deakho’s pillars stronger.
“We live by our boss’s words -- the world is your oyster, go explore!” said Ishfaque -- one of the program producers.
“There’s no me, there’s us,” said Kaarina -- another program producer. There are many methods they work with but team-work is what helps them to build successful content. All the characters improvise a lot on camera which makes their videos amazing.
“I joined Daekho cause of the opportunities I saw and of course, the environment!” said Rafat -- one of the editors.
Youth being the target market for this company, it is both -- easy and hard for them to deliver content that the audience likes. So far, Daekho has not received any complaints and they have not faced any lawsuits. Furthermore, they are even leading a monopoly market which leaves no room for local comparisons. For many, it might not make any sense when they get to know that people work full-time jobs just to upload videos on Facebook or YouTube but as this venture is on the verge of breaking the barriers, there are many who can make a living out of Facebook pages or YouTube channels.
