Aggressive mobile pricing, content help Netflix dominate key SEA markets

However, the report also shows the different stages of evolution of SVOD in these markets. In Indonesia and Thailand, 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. In contrast, Singapore is a far more mature market, although it also continues to grow.

Netflix has grown significantly in the first half of 2020, driven by aggressively priced packages with mobile operators and the explosion of interest in Korean content, original shows and local acquisitions. In terms of the competition. Viu’s numbers are driven by its Korean day-and-date content and local acquisitions and originals in markets such as Thailand.

In these four markets, overall streaming minutes on mobile grew 30% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2020 and a further 19% in Q2 to reach 657 billion, according to Media Partners Asia. YouTube’s share of streaming minutes was 84% in Q2, driven by free-to-air (FTA) TV content, music and user-generated kids content. Outside of YouTube, total streaming minutes grew 57% to reach 107 billion in Q2, versus 68 billion in Q1.

Other notable players with at least a 20% share of total streaming minutes 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.