Communiqué 15: How Zikoko taps into youth culture to build a media business
The story of Zikoko’s evolution into one of Nigeria’s most important cultural publications.
In the beginning – before Naira Life, Man Like, Sex Life, and all its famous content series – there was Zikoko the Buzzfeed clone, fueled by listicles and humour soaked in nostalgia and relatability.
Reading an early-day Zikoko listicle was like looking at your life’s story play out in a screen before you. Only, this story was meant to make you laugh.
In 2015, when I worked at Big Cabal Media, Zikoko’s parent company, I witnessed firsthand the gruelling foundational days of building the cultural powerhouse that Zikoko is today. I watched the then-Editor-in-Chief, Damilola Odufuwa, and her editorial team bat ideas for hours and churn out articles and listicles that people read, laughed at, shared on their social media, and moved on from within minutes to find the next interesting thing (as is typical of the modern-day audience).
What follows is the story of Zikoko, its evolution, its relationship with youth culture in Nigeria…
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