Online Video Consumption Soars in Southeast Asia

New research from Media Partners Asia (MPA) explores the key drivers of the streaming market in Southeast Asia, with total minutes viewed on mobile up 30 percent in Q1 and 19 percent in Q2 in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Total video streaming minutes on mobile reached 657 billion in the first half in these key Southeast Asian territories, according to MPA’s Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics: A Definitive Study. The report, which leverages MPA’s proprietary AMPD Research platform, was first published in May and has been updated to cover research from Q2.

YouTube’s share of streaming minutes in the region was a whopping 84 percent in Q2, driven by free-to-air TV content, music and user-generated kids’ content. Excluding YouTube, total streaming minutes grew 57 percent to reach 107 billion. Of that, Netflix had a 39 percent share thanks to its gains in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Viu had a 17 percent share. Other key players in the region include Vidio in Indonesia, iQiyi, Thailand’s WeTV and Line TV and Tencent-owned iflix.

The region added 3 million SVOD subs in the period to reach about 10 million in Q2. Netflix remains in the lead with more than 3.3 million subs, ahead of Viu’s 2.2 million paying subscribers. The mobile tier and Korean content have helped to drive Netflix’s base, MPA notes, alongside its global originals and local acquisitions. Viu has been bolstered by its lineup of Korean day-and-date series, plus some local acquisitions and originals.

Vidio, which like Viu is also a freemium offer, hit 632,000 paying subs in Q2, while HBO Go has about 400,000.

“Online video consumption continued to soar through the pandemic in Southeast Asia during 1H 2020,” said Vivek Couto, MPA’s executive director. “The growth of premium video services has been significant, with a greater scale of consumers paying for online video in large emerging such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Global, local and regional platforms are rolling out more affordable OTT plans, catering to a large mobile broadband universe, while also investing in premium entertainment. It’s only the beginning with plenty of more work, investment and execution to be done to create sustained, recurring demand for paid legal SVOD services.”