PCCW (SEHK:0008) – HONG KONG, February 17, 2020 – Viu, a leading pan-regional OTT video service from PCCW Media Group, achieved new milestones in 2019 that demonstrate the rapid growth of a highly engaged user base and continual increase in monetization reflected in revenue for the OTT video segment. Viu reached 41.4 million monthly active users (MAU) at the end of 2019, representing an increase of 35% over 2018.
Additionally, video views grew 69% to 5.7 billion year-over-year. The expanding user base and increased engagement have supported the growth in its video segment revenue which grew by 32% in 2019.
Viu Original Among Most Viewed
More than 40% of Viu’ers have watched Viu Original productions and those titles are ranked within the top five shows viewed, amongst all new titles launched in 2019. Viu focuses on three key areas when developing Viu Original – creating original properties based on analytics and insights of consumption on our platform; innovating new production concepts such as My Bubble Tea (Thailand), a drama leveraging youth-oriented stories and online fan fictions; and locally adapting globally acclaimed properties, such as Black (Malaysia).
The following anticipated adaptations out of Indonesia and Malaysia are coming soon:
Pretty Little Liars
Viu is remaking one of the most successful Warner Bros. International Television Production titles, Pretty Little Liars, in Asia. Localized in Bahasa and filmed in Bali, the series follows a group of four estranged undergrads whose group has fallen apart when their former leader went missing. The girls come back together in the face of danger, when they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure known as “A”, who threatens to expose their darkest secrets.
It is expected to air in Q1 2020 with an ensemble cast featuring Yuki Kato, Anya Geraldine, Eyka Farhana, Valerie Thomas and Shindy Huang.
The Bridge 2
The Bridge 2 is a collaboration between HBO Asia and Viu to create the second season of Endemol Shine Group’s The Bridge. Riding on the success of the first season, season two will pick up one year after where the story ended in season one. A yacht registered in Singapore drifts ashore in Johor with a deceased Indonesian family on board. Investigating the slew of serial killings that follow, the characters become mired in a web of treachery, deceit and personal tragedy.
It is expected to air in Q2 2020 with Ario Bayo joining returning cast Bront Palarae and Rebecca Lim in the lead roles.
Viu’s Leadership Position According to App Annie Ranking
Viu ranked number two in “IAP Revenue”, “Monthly Active Users”, “Total Time” and “Avg Time per user” respectively in December 2019 among top video streaming apps (entertainment category) in Greater Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) as verified by App Annie.
This substantiates the scale of Viu’s user base as well as the quality of our users as demonstrated by the high engagement time as the number of users continue to grow.
Source: PCCW 2019 Annual Results presentation.
Ms. Janice Lee, Managing Director PCCW Media Group and Chief Executive Officer of Viu, said, “We have a passion for storytelling that cuts across languages and cultural settings, and are drawn to universal stories told through a local lens. In 2020, Viu continues to bring the widest and most popular Korean content and Viu Original productions to online audiences across markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. We look forward to showcasing these works from Asian creative talents to more audience internationally. We are delighted to see an increasing appetite for Asian content from audience globally as evidenced by the sweeping Oscar wins for Parasite this year, which can be watched on Viu in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines starting this month.”
Ms. Lee added, “We thank our partners and Viu’ers for enabling us to reach new heights, taking our service to scale and improving our service based on feedback through content usage. This year we will continue to develop original content and identify opportunities to build up local talent ecosystems in Asia, along the lines of the Viu Pitching Forum and Viu Shorts! Competitions which we established.”
Viu mobile app can be downloaded for free on App Store, Google Play, and selected smart TVs, as well as on the web at www.viu.com.
For further details of Viu’s business performance, please refer to the announcement of PCCW 2019 annual results.
