One upon a time, Nigerian cross dresser Idris Olarewaju Okuneye was just a regular 'BOY' born in Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State who wanted more out of life and desperately needed a way out of his poor background.
Luckily for him, his hormones and psyche began pushing him towards being Nigeria's Caitlin Jenner and from his teenage years he began messing with the idea of becoming a 'Woman' so much that he got arrested about 10 year ago for using fake boobs, pretending to be a woman and scamming unsuspecting men.
Fast forward to his undergraduate days at UNILAG, he evolved, added a bot of swag and panache to his packaging and viola! Bobrisky was born. He became bold and started to dress like a woman but tales of how badly those who came before him were treated inside Unilag kept him on a leash and he couldn't wait to graduate and leave school.
As fate would have it, a new social media app 'Snapchat' was just gaining popularity just about the time Bobrisky was leaving Unilag and instantly, Bobrisky and Snapchat became 5 & 6.
Though Snachat launched in 2011 in the US, it didn't gain popularity in Nigeria till late 2014 and by 2015 Bobrisky had perfected his strategy to become a superstar with Snapchat as his driving force.
He became an instant hit with his weird dressing, boldness and ability to call out anyone and any celebrity. The major selling point of Bobrisky's fame is the tale of a 'mystery BAE' that may or may not exist but he sold the story anyways.
Bobrisky became the new social media sensation and no journalist or media house can lay claim to helping him become popular. So websites like Thenetng, Linda Ikeji Blog, Pulseng and others began paying more attention to him, wrote more about him, wanted to unveil him and this helped his rising popularity.
In no time, he became Nigeria'a 'King Of Snapchat' boasting of well over 700,000 views on his Snaps. Everything was rosy, he was untop, he was in the news daily, he fed off the vibe and even created more controversies. He's had beefs with everyone and anyone including Denrele, Toyin Lawani, Daddy Freeze, Tunde Ednut, Speed Darlington and the list goes on.
To be honest and fair, Bobrisy did make good use of Snapchat, he sold his creams in numbers, went on tour to the United States, Ghana and even headlined a couple of events. He was indeed influential in making certain songs popular, his dance moves was everything and more that many girls loved and ofcourse his cooking lessons was top notch (helped alot of slay queens that couldn't cook to save their lives).
Then suddenly, in the first week of February 2018, Snapchat launched a new update that changed everything! The new update was met with fierce criticismc world over but Snapchat made it clear that it was impossible to revert to the old version.
Gradually users who couldn't handle the change began to withdraw from using the app and the then a killer tweet from one of Snapchat's top user Kylie Jenner that read " sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad" reportedly sent the stocks of Snapchat plunging and costing the company almost $1.3Billion.
And gradually, since February, not alot has been heard from Bobrisly till date. He's no longer making headlines and his feeble attempts to ride on the 'Big Brother Naija' bandwagon hasn't yielded any positive fruit. Yes, he's still very active on the app but not alot of people care about it anymore or maybe his fans are just tired and getting bored of his antics.
Lessons:
For Snapchat... The company's reaction to the global outcry about the update was drab. All it needed to have done was to have contacted the likes of Kylie Jenner, Bobrisky, Toke Makinwa and co to simply tweet positive things about the new update and it'll have worked like magic. Snapchat as a social media company should know most of these millennials don't know what they want, if a couple of important people and celebrities had said the new Snapchat was dope and cool then it would have been dope and cool for everyone.
For Bobrisky... Its time to evolve. While his bromance with Snapchat was at its peak, Bobrisky forgot about other social media apps like Twitter and Facebook that he could equally use to his advantage. He also needs to take the 'BAE' story to season 2, its time to do more and be more!
For Slay Queens... Nothing lasts forever.The fact that you are famous on Instagram today doesn't mean you'll be forever. Things change in twinkle of an eye! #StayWoke
No comments:
Post a Comment