Viu originals drives Asian streamer to 41 million monthly active users

Janice Lee

Viu, the Hong Kong-based OTT video service, has secured over 40 million monthly active users.

The PCCW Media Group-owned streamer announced that it reached 41.4 million monthly active users by the end of 2019, representing a year-over-year increase of 35%.

The company also noted that video views grew 69% to 5.7 billion year-over-year and that its video segment revenue grew by 32% in 2019.

In Greater South-East-Asia (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), the streamer now only ranks behind Netflix in terms of in-app purchase revenue, monthly active users, total time and average time per user, the company claimed.

Originals are among the most popular content on the platform, with more than 40% of users watching productions created for Viu. The company, headed up by CEO Janice Lee, said that it develops original properties based on analytics and insights of consumer habits, which has led to the creation of Thai series My Bubble Tea and Malaysian show Black.

Lee 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 South-East Asia and the Middle East. We look forward to showcasing these works from Asian creative talents to more audiences internationally.”