Report: Online video consumption soars in SE Asia
September 28, 2020
Total video streaming minutes on mobile grew 30 per cent Q/Q in Q1 2020 across four Southeast Asia markets and a further 19 per cent Q/Q in Q2 to reach 657 billion, according to a study published by Media Partners Asia (MPA).
The report, entitled Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics: A Definitive Study, was first published in May 2020 and has been updated to cover research from Q2 2020 across Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The report leverages MPA’s proprietary AMPD Research platform.
According to the report, global AVoD market leader YouTube’s share of streaming minutes was 84 per cent in Q2 2020, driven by free-to-air (FTA) TV content, music and user-generated kids content. Ex-YouTube, total streaming minutes grew 57 per cent to reach 107 billion in Q2 versus 68 billion in Q1. Global SVoD market leader Netflix had 39 per cent share, driven by significant growth in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand along with steady growth in Singapore. Leading regional freemium OTT operator Viu had 17 per cent share, driven by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Other notable players with material 20 per cent share in aggregate of total streaming minutes ex-YouTube in the four markets included Indonesia’s Vidio, China’s iQIYI, which is expanding slowly across Southeast Asia; WeTV and Line TV in Thailand; and iflix. In Q2, iflix’s assets were acquired by Tencent, which also owns WeTV.
Total cumulative SVoD net additions in the four SEA markets reached 3 million in Q2 2020. Total SVoD paying subs, unadjusted for overlapping users or subscriptions, reached ~10 million in Q2 2020 versus ~7 million in Q1 2020. In Indonesia, SVoD has a long way to go but is showing encouraging signs of growth driven by affordable plans by key operators catering to the mobile mass market. Similar trends are occurring in Thailand though from a higher base. Philippines and Singapore continue to grow steadily.
Netflix remains the largest SVoD player across the four markets with more than ~3.3 million subscribers across the four markets with Viu in second place with an estimated 2.2 million paying subs. Netflix has grown significantly in H1 2020 on the back of mobile pricing and the popularity of its Korean content, International / US Originals and local acquisitions. Much of freemium operator Viu’s success is driven by its Korean day-and-date dramas & series as well as a handful of local acquisitions and originals in markets such as Thailand.
Other notable gainers include:
– Emtek / SCMA-owned Vidio in Indonesia, a freemium operator which had 632,000 paying subs in Q2 2020, growing to 804,000 by mid-September and
– HBO Go with ~400,000 paying and authenticated subscribers in Q2 2020 on mobile, driven largely by direct subs in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
– Amongst the big telco aggregators, the most significant is TrueID in Thailand with 1.5 million paying and authenticated subscribers in Thailand.
Commenting on the report’s findings in Q2 2020, MPA executive director Vivek Couto said: “Online video consumption continued to soar through the pandemic in Southeast Asia during 1H 2020. 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 & 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.”