The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian content creator said the sector is missing out on “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in revenue due to difficulties in obtaining payment from abroad, and hopes digital assets will provide a much-needed cure.

Michael Armogan, president of the Bahamas ESports Federation, told Tribune Business that Bahamian content creators are missing out on advertising revenue from social media platforms such as YouTube because the government has failed to put in place sound banking policies that allow the social media giant and others to send payment to this nation.

He said: “Content creators have been using alternative methods to get paid, by either using a US bank or some other method. But even if you take a look at Google’s creator programme or the YouTube partnership programme, The Bahamas isn’t even listed.”

He added that The Bahamas was not listed on the YouTube partnership programme because the country’s banking system is red-flagged by the social media giant. Mr Armogan said: “Essentially they’re saying that there’s not enough interest, but banking is a part of the problem, too. So yes, there is a situation with interest and the amount of content creators that actually are on the platform that are getting the requirements.

“But also, when they do hit the requirements and they try to be eligible, if their account is listed as being created from The Bahamas or listed from The Bahamas, then it really stops it from getting there. Some people are bypassing and saying they’re from the States, Canada.

“When they do try to send the information into the bank, there’s a problem. Typically they have to go through some alternative route, either sending it to some exchange or third -party person, or even having it sent via cheque to then cash over here, which would difficult because the cheque is a US cheque.”

Mr Armogan believes this can be solved by the Government reaching out to the social media platform to meet its requirements, which he adds can be done in “either a few months or a few weeks, depending on the seriousness of the approach.

“This should really be a situation where all you have to do is put in your banking details and SWIFT code, and it goes directly to your account,” he said. “This is something that the Government really should be taking a look into, because it’s holding a lot of things back, especially since they’re taking a look at this whole ‘white paper’ situation with cryptocurrency.”

In the Caribbean, only Jamaica currently can be monetised through YouTube’s partnership programme. Websites and bloggers can earn through Google’s adsense platform, but the revenue pale in comparison to the thousands of dollars content creators can make on the video-sharing platform.

Mr Armogan said: “Honestly, the best thing to do was start taking a look at the banking procedures and making sure that they’re allowing these international companies to actually work with us and not be as held back, as we typically are.

“I think, again, a lot of this conversation is starting to happen now. Unfortunately, it’s only happening because of cryptocurrency and FTX, and I think the other one is OKX, coming here, and so they’re now wanting to be this tech hub. Meanwhile, we are still very much held back by our own government in regard to the ways that we can make money.

“So, yeah, the first step is essentially taking a look and making sure that the banks here, and the main one being our own Central Bank, which actually manages and dictates all the policies and procedures, starts taking a look at this and paving the way forward and, if any banks are trying to stop it, let’s say one of the Canadian banks as an example, not allowing that.”

Mr Armogan added: “A lot of content creators are already put into a situation where they don’t want to create content on YouTube because there’s no way for them to really monetise it, and those ones you can’t even calculate because they’re not even wanting to do that.

“But if you take a look at the content creators already out there, some of them already having millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of views. They can quite literallybe making thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, just from the content creation alone. That’s not anything to do with partnerships or anything like that, because then they would actually be recognised as a verified partner.”

The only social media platform that allows for monetiaation for Bahamian content creators is Twitch, but it is primarily a gaming platform. Facebook has started its video monetisation programme but that, too, is not eligible for Bahamians.