According to a market report, premium video consumption in Southeast Asia rose at 6% quarter on quarter in the July-September period. This is nearly double the 3% expansion in the overall online video industry. Chinese content is making an impact.
“Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics,” from Media Partners Asia’s AMPD Research and measurement unit, shows video consumption of AVOD, SVOD, freemium and game streaming topping out at 1.25 trillion minutes in the period. MPA refers to Southeast Asia as Indonesia (Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines, and Singapore).
YouTube remained the dominant business, with 63% of all minutes consumed. However, TikTok gained five percentage points, with 26%. Bytedance’s short video platform has 156 million monthly average viewers (MAUs) across the region, and is especially strong in Indonesia.
Premium video accounted for 10% of Southeast Asia’s total video consumption. Netflix maintained a strong lead with 39% of premium streaming minutes. “Regional and local streaming operators Viu, WeTV and iQIYI compete for number two,”The report said so.
It pointed out that Disney Plus (also known as Disney Plus Hotstar) has increased its premium streaming and engagement in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Malaysia by more than doubling. It had a strong start in Thailand which saw 75% of all new subscribers. It is expected that the platform engagement will increase by adding original and licensed Korean and Japanese titles in the fourth quarter. MPA estimates that the region has approximately 7 million subscribers.
Viu is close behind, with an estimated 6.1 Million subscribers in Southeast Asia as of September. “Viu’s growth is anchored to telco integrations, along with the popularity of exclusive and premium Korean dramas and variety,”The report stated.
Tencent-owned WeTV reached one million subscribers in Southeast Asia thanks to the success of the local Indonesian dramas and Chinese dramas in Thailand. Tencent recently announced the acquisition by a 14% minority stake in Indonesian studio MD Pictures.
“Thailand and Indonesia are the region’s most competitive premium video markets. In Thailand, WeTV edged out Netflix to lead premium video streaming as the popularity of premium and library Chinese dramas soars in the market. In Indonesia, Viu and Netflix compete for number one, while Vidio, leveraging local free-to-air, sports and originals, follows closely behind,” said MPA analyst Dhivya T.
“Thailand has also emerged as a competitive and dynamic SVOD market. Thai SVOD subscriptions grew 16% quarter-on-quarter to reach 11.3 million in Q3 2021. Strong mobile and home broadband connectivity, increasing propensity to pay, the presence of local aggregators and the rise of Chinese content, powered by WeTV and iQIYI, along with demand for premium local content online has created new competition and growth for streamers.”