WeTV, Southeast Asia’s leading video-on-demand (VOD) and over-the-top platform (OTT), has achieved resounding success in its premium subscription services. Additionally, WeTV’s transactional subscription services (including fast track, rent, and EXPRESS) made up around 10% of its 2022’s annual income. Reflecting its ongoing appeal for consumers and emerging opportunities for advertisers, WeTV will be ramping up engagement with partners and advertisers with quarterly roadshows in the region in 2023.
Ranked one of the top three OTT platforms in Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and Thailand, WeTV has seen continued growth in its user base with approximately 40% growth in subscription income, supported by a 20% growth in monthly active users. The consumption time of Chinese dramas has increased by 15% year-on-year (YoY), and the aired duration of WeTV Chinese mini-series1 also surged by an impressive 420%, reflecting a stronger consumer demand and appetite for shorter video content.
“WeTV’s strong growth in 2022 reflects that consumers were able and willing to pay for high-quality content that WeTV offers, given the projected annual growth rate in the OTT market over the next few years,” said Jeff Han, WeTV Director and Vice President of Tencent Video. “Our strong performance last year is testament to our compelling content line-up which appeals to regional audiences. This year, we will continue to work with partners to invest in producing top-quality original shows that consumers desire, particularly our WeTV mini-series, given its massive increase in popularity over the past year.”
Additionally, WeTV has undergone user interface upgrades for its platform last year to provide an enhanced browsing and viewing experience for its users. Under the “Shows You Might Like” feature in the application, users are provided with more relevant choices based on what they like to watch.
Partnerships
To ensure sustained collaboration with renowned international brands and agencies, WeTV will hold partner roadshows in Southeast Asia every quarter to share upcoming projects and explore new partnership opportunities. Currently, advertising agencies such as GroupM, Omnicom Media Group (OMG), and Dentsu are tapping on WeTV’s growing influence to reach out to their target audiences. WeTV will continue to target advertisers in their priority industries namely Computers, Communications, and Consumer Electronics (3C), Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), and Cosmetics and Personal Care.
Against the backdrop of the rapidly expanding market for mobile-first OTT services, WeTV has also become a solid partner of local leading operators and telecommunication service providers, such as Telkomsel and Indihome in Indonesia as well as AIS in Thailand.
“As we aim to be a world-class digital lifestyle solutions provider, Telkomsel is excited to partner with top content providers such as WeTV,” said Derrick Heng, Chief Marketing Officer of Telkomsel. “The partnership we have with WeTV have shown great results in terms of package transactions, increase in subscribers and payload consumption. We are looking forward to launching more strategic initiatives together with WeTV.”
“IndiHome TV is a pay TV market leader in Indonesia, and as one of our major OTT partners, WeTV has exceeded our expectations by providing a diverse selection of Asian series and movies, particularly reflected by the success of local original series which are more relevant to the Indonesian audience,” said Dedi Suherman, Head of TV Video Division of Telkom Indonesia. “We look forward to continuing the partnership of IndiHome TV with WeTV, and we are excited to see more of our subscribers enjoying WeTV.”
2023 Content Line-Up
WeTV is committed to continue investing in prime, local original content and bringing the best of Asian entertainment to its viewers in the region, given the region’s growing investment in Internet infrastructure, growing demand for quality content, and rapid digitalisation of film and television content.
Historical drama “Love Like the Galaxy” which was released last year, has achieved a new record high in terms of viewership and income among Chinese dramas since 2019. For local original content, Indonesian drama “Layangan Putus” which started broadcasting at the beginning of 2022 skyrocketed viewership on the platform to an all-time high. Meanwhile, “Kupu Malam” has become another in-demand drama comparable to “Layangan Putus” based on its current broadcasting performance.
For 2023, WeTV has in store an exciting slew of highly anticipated titles featuring star-studded casts, ranging from soft romance, fantasy, and even Wuxia dramas. These binge-worthy series include headliner period dramas “Lost You Forever” “The Legend of Shenli”, as well as “Nothing but Love”, featuring lead actor, Wu Lei of “Love Like the Galaxy” which topped WeTV’s viewership in 2022. Also slated for release are “Wonderland of Love”, “Snow Eagle Land” and “Sword and Fairy”, a fantasy series adapted from a popular role-playing game, will feature Xu Kai.
In an effort to reach out to more viewers regionally, Tencent Video partnered with streaming platform Rakuten Viki last October to carry a large slate of Chinese drama series regionally. This year, regional viewers can also look forward to Indonesian WeTV Originals “Jodoh Atau Bukan” as well as “5 Detik dan Rasa Rindu”, which also featured actress Prilly Latuconsina who also played in “My Lecturer My Husband” Seasons 1 and 2 which garnered huge success on WeTV.
