Viu gets $110m backing for Asia’s streaming war

K-drama “Descendants of the Sun” is one of Southeast Asia’s most popular TV shows.

Foxconn’s venture capital arm, Singaporean state fund Temasek Holdings, and Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital have made a strategic investment in the company behind video streaming service Viu.

Foxconn Ventures, Hony, and Temasek are paying the equivalent of US$110 million to take ownership of 18 percent of the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT, which also owns mobile video service VuClip and music streaming service Moov. PCCW Media – a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based telco PCCW – will remain as controlling shareholder.

The company said that the investment will be used to fund original content production and enhance its technology offering.

PCCW OTT also said it would “leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience.” This may mean that the company plans to license its patented technologies in order to generate additional revenue, or to encourage their wider adoption in the industry. As such, the firm’s patents could give it an edge over its myriad competitors in the region. Tech in Asia has reached out to PCCW for additional comment.

The strategic investment comes less than a week after Iflix – one of Viu’s key competitors in the region – announced that it had raised US$133 million in funding to boost production of locally oriented, original content.

Ranking data from analytics firm App Annie indicates that Iflix is the dominant streaming app in several of Asia-Pacific’s major emerging markets. Netflix is playing catch-up, but has made growth in the region a strategic priority. Viu is another significant player, achieving top 10 spots in entertainment app rankings in the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand across both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Viu had over 12 million monthly active users as of June this year. It is available in 15 markets across Asia and the Middle East.

This post Viu gets $110m backing for Asia’s streaming war appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/viu-hony-foxconn-temasek
via IFTTT