Since the Covid-19 pandemic that has shifted the world, including the media industry, toward online activities and platforms, OTT platforms have been constantly on the rise.
WeTV, a leading video streaming service and one of the top three OTT platforms in Southeast Asian markets, has experienced considerable success in Southeast Asia with a variety of transactions involving its premium subscription service. The transactions include fast track episodes, express package, and content rental. WeTV has a growing user base, with its subscription service revenue expanding by more than 40 percent, supported by a 20 percent growth in monthly active users. Moreover, the consumption time of Chinese series content has increased by 15 percent year-on-year, resulting in 420 percent growth in aired duration of Chinese mini-series from WeTV, indicating how demand for short video contents is on the rise.
Jeff Han, WeTV Director and Vice President of Tencent Video, said “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. 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.”
According to the study “The Future of TV 2022” by The Trade Desk and KANTAR, around 26 million Thais spend 1.4 billion hours a month on OTT (over-the-top) platforms. 20 percent of Thais spend about four hours a day or more on them.
WeTV Thailand is currently growing in the same direction as WeTV’s overall growth in Southeast Asian markets. Its strengths include a library of trending quality copyrighted contents comprising over 1,200 series, animes, and variety shows from China (50%), Thailand (25%), South Korea (10%), Japan (10%), and others (5%).
Kanokporn Prachayaset, Chief Commercial Officer and Country Manager of WeTV Thailand, Tencent (Thailand), shared WeTV’s strategies going forward into 2023.“WeTV Thailand is committed to following our business roadmap, with a particular emphasis on building partnerships,” she said.
WeTV has partnered with many leading production companies in producing WeTV ORIGINAL contents and also partnered with television stations to expand viewing channels and customer bases. It also joined forces with businesses in other industries such as lifestyle platforms, telcos, payment service providers, and OTT device suppliers to broaden online coverage, facilitate payment, and offer special promotions. In terms of content licensing partners, last year WeTV joined forces with Contents Seven, the leading content distributor in Japan, to bring Thai content to the Japanese audience. They have purchased the copyrights to two WeTV ORIGINAL namely ‘609 Bedtime Story’ and ‘Love Mechanics’ so that the Japanese audience can access to more Thai contents from WeTV.
“Another strategy is quality contents,” said Ms. Kanokporn. “WeTV continues to emphasize its position as ‘The best streaming video platform for quality entertainment in Asia’, focusing on premium quality Chinese contents that can be viewed simultaneously with Chinese viewers, as well as Thai ORIGINAL contents, as the main drivers of business operations.”
As a true master of Chinese contents that has brought Chinese series to popular Thai media, WeTV continues to dominate the scene. Over the past three years, the number of viewers of Chinese series has increased by 12 percent. WeTV has launched more than 90 easy-to-digest Chinese mini-series on the platform to meet the needs of users with limited time and the reception from fans has been terrific. Many more Chinese contents are in the line-up for 2023.
As for the WeTV ORIGINAL Thai series, WeTV has partnered with many leading Thai producers such as CHANGE2561, Kantana, TV Thunder, and KONGTHUP PRODUCTION to produce new contents, including several bromance series to be added on the platform in 2023.
Ms. Kanokporn added that another focus in 2023 is on building a unique community and engagement, strong enough to expand the user base of Asian content lovers.
“WeTV understands its own target users who, in addition to the variety and quality of the contents, love sharing moments and interacting among themselves. The platforms feature unique in-app engagement such as ‘flying comment’ and ‘send love’. WeTV also organises various online-to-offline events as well as artist meetups and special prizes from series. These all reflect a strong bond between WeTV and its community.”
The overview of business operations in the past year and the direction for 2023 evidence WeTV’s commitment to moving forward in the Thai OTT market. The outlook includes comprehensive strategies in terms of partnerships as WeTV plans to expand cooperation with partners in various circles, enabling to cater to a diverse range of user demands and lifestyles. At the same time, it will continuously develop its platforms to meet the entertainment appetites of users. It will select quality contents from various areas across Asia to provide full-flavored Asian contents. WeTV ORIGINAL will bring Thai contents to the global market.
Ms. Kanokporn concluded: “WeTV is keen on maintaining and expanding the community base of Asian content consumers that will help extend new business models. All this and more will reinforce its positioning as ‘The best Asian entertainment platform’.”
