PCCW 
Asian streaming firm Viu is approaching profitability by staying its lane and sticking with the business principles that have made it a regional success story – Asian content, AVOD and SVOD models under one roof, and resistance to over-expansion.“The industry for streaming has matured very rapidly [in part due to COVID],” said CEO Janice Lee, speaking Wednesday at the APOS convention in Singapore. “But what makes Asia different is that Asia has not yet reached mature market status.”After some six...
PCCW
Janice
Lee
Managing Director, Media Group / CEO, Viu
Lee runs the pan-regional streaming service Viu, launched six years ago by Hong Kong telco and media group PCCW. Currently available in 16 markets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, the service has recently seen a dramatic rise in monthly active users (up 23% to 60.7 million in the first half of 2022) and subscriptions (up 31% to 9.1 million). Viu is now one of the region’s leading streamers thanks to its Asia-focused content strategy, strong partnerships with telcos and effective data analytics. Lee believes one of the keys to its success has been its freemium model, offering a free ad-supported tier with limited access to content along with an ad-free subscription plan with unlimited downloads. Notably, two of Viu’s biggest competitors, Netflix and Disney+, are both adopting that model this year.
