PCCW's Viu enjoys significant growth in 2021

Viu strengthens its position as one of the top OTT streaming platforms in Greater Southeast Asia after a strong performance English

HONG KONG and SINGAPORE — Viu, PCCW’s leading pan-regional OTT video streaming service, announced today that the platform saw significant growth in monetization in 2021, adding strong financial performance to its position as one of the top OTT streaming platforms in Greater Southeast Asia (GSEA), the Middle East and South Africa.

According to parent company PCCW’s annual financial results announcement, Viu was reported to have an overall increase in revenue of 37% year-on-year (yoy) in 2021 and have consistently delivered high growth revenue at 36% CAGR since 2018. GSEA as a region has been consistently outpacing the overall GSEA OTT market growth rate for the past two years, at 43% yoy growth in revenue* against industry market growth of 35%** for 2021.

With a strong content lineup and strengthened commercial partnerships including distribution, Viu saw a growth of approximately 30% in Monthly Active Users (MAU) as compared to 2020, reaching 58.6 million. Viu also enjoyed a total of 8.4 million paid subscribers as at the end of 2021, an increase of 58% from a year ago when paid subscribers stood at 5.3 million. Large markets such as Thailand and Indonesia saw strong growth, with the Philippines and South Africa having high growth.

Ms. Janice Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Viu & Managing Director, PCCW Media Group, said, “The strong performance in 2021 is a validation of Viu’s freemium model, despite an increasingly competitive landscape. We continue to pave the way in marrying the subscription video on demand (SVOD) model with the advertising video on demand (AVOD) model, allowing us to tap into the rapid growth in both sectors. We identified a content strategy and consumer proposition that is appealing to a wide and growing audience of pan-regional Asian entertainment which includes Korean, Japanese and Chinese content to complement an increased investment into Viu Original productions. 2022 will see over 30 titles produced in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Middle East, with pan-regional distribution in all our markets.”

* Viu’s 2021 GSEA revenue growth excludes Myanmar, which is not covered by MPA.
** Based on MPA Asia Pacific Online Video & Broadband Distribution 2021. Values represent the annual revenue of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.