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Vidio nears unicorn status with first external funding
Indonesia is close to seeing another unicorn emerge as the OTT media service reaches a valuation of $900 million after bagging its first investment worth $150 million.
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Anytime, anywhere: A user browses the movies on offer on a streaming service app. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
H
omegrown over-the-top (OTT) media service Vidio has received US$150 million from private venture company Affinity Equity Partners, lifting it to near-unicorn status with a valuation of $900 million.
Established in 2014, Vidio is owned by PT Surya Citra Media (SCM), a subholding company of Indonesian media powerhouse PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek). Emtek has formed a “strategic alliance” with superapp Grab.
“Through the investment [...], PT SCM’s ownership in PT Vidio Dot Com will change from 100 percent to 83.33 percent,” SCM corporate secretary Gilang Iskandar said in a statement on Monday.
The investment also marks the first external funding for Vidio and Affinity’s second investment in Indonesia; its first was a 2017 investment in pharmaceutical and jamu (traditional herbal medicine) company Sido Muncul.
According to media and telecom consulting company Media Partners Asia (MPA), Vidio reached over 1 million paying subscribers in January banking on premium local content and broadcasting rights to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The MPA quarterly report showed that online video consumption in Southeast Asia reached 1.2 trillion minutes in the second quarter this year, with premium video platforms making up 10 percent of total consumption.
Subscription video on demand (SVOD) service Netflix led with 40 percent of the market share, while regional freemium platforms like Hong Kong’s Viu and China’s WeTV and iQIYI, in addition to Indonesia’s Vidio, “remained strong”, albeit each with less than 20 percent of the market.
