Global streaming giant rivals, Netflix and Disney+, are upping the ante in South East Asia. The region with huge population has high growth potential for the OTT platforms. While Disney+ in association with Hotstar is launching next month in Indonesia, Netflix is spreading its reach with affordable mobile only plans.
As told by Netflix director for product innovation Ajay Arora to Reuters, the company is exploiting the fact that South East Asian market is mobile-centric and launching mobile only plans (India, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia), adapting its products and providing flexible payment options such as through mobile plans or prepaid Netflix cards.
Netflix is also expanding on the content front with two new original Indonesian productions that will soon start filming in Indonesia and Thailand soon. All this makes it very evident that Netflix is all game to increase the existing over 1 million subscriber base of the South East Asian region.
Disney+ too has realised the region’s potential and apart from launching in Indonesia next month, it is running hiring drives in the region and is expected to launch on a larger scale with its Indian streaming platform Hotstar in the near future.
According to a study by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Co the South East Asian region generated $600 million in overall subscription music and video revenue in 2019, which will increase to annual $3 billion by 2025. Moreover, the current pandemic scenario has forced people to stay indoors and consume more content online.
All this, added to the vast population of the region is an attractive feature that is luring streaming giants like Netflix and Disney towards it. And not only that these western companies are innovating and improvising for the South East Asian market too. Get ready for a new streaming war on a new battlefield!!
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