Emerging subscription-based streaming video service iflix intends to set itself apart from Netflix by becoming a social media platform for television, according to company executive.
“Netflix is very much into an original production base… they are really focusing their investment on content and user experience and interface," Cam Walker, chief executive of iflix Indonesia, told telecomasia.net at the sidelines of Communic Indonesia and Broadcast Indonesia 2016, which kicked off Wednesday at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
"We have just most recently decided to venture beyond entertainment into becoming a truly social platform for television."
To do that, Walker said the company is planning to introduce more social media components and interactive features to the service. For instance, the company will offer a social feature later this year where users can chat with others or interact with local celebrities who have drawn up movie playlists for them.
Iflix launched its service in Indonesia in mid-June this year and garnered 250,000 activations in about two-and-a-half months.
Walker said the Indonesian market is relatively new from an OTT perspective and doesn’t see other streaming services as competitive, as they are all heading in different paths.
“We're the new kid on the block. We started a couple of years as a cool internet TV concept, with a vision to provide a better service to piracy and a viable alternative at an affordable price point,” he said.
iflix is now offering 2,000 seasons of 900 programs, 5,000 episodes of 200 kids programs and local content acquired from partners for its Indonesian viewers.
Walker said iflix will soon produce its first local Indonesian content that will open more opportunities for local actors, producers, directors, scriptwriters and "the new breed of Indonesian talents."
"We're going to be investing heavily in local productions and local acquisitions as well, which I think will differentiate us from the major international players," he said.
Another key differentiation, Walker noted, is its no-ads, telco-driven model. The company is partnering with telcos in local markets by bundling the service with telcos’ voice and data services at relatively cheap prices. In Indonesia, for instance, iflix is offered via relatively cheap bundled packages through service providers, such as Telkomsel and Indosat Ooredoo, which allows end users to purchase the service.
Walker said the company is currently focusing on driving activation and will eventually move towards concentrating on user engagement.
“We are very focused on ensuring that we can drive high-level of activations for all of our telco partnerships,” Walker said. “Once we’ve got deeper into that, we will start working on probably a more macro level on data, in terms of viewer habits, unique views and the number of minutes consumed by unique views on a daily basis, so that we can enhance engagement and ultimately ensure we not only have a significant number of users, but also that they highly engage with the service itself.”
In addition to Indonesia, the service is also available in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Meanwhile, iflix is keen to enter more emerging markets such as Vietnam, and several countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
However, iflix has yet to consider China and India, as it wants to focus on emerging countries with an estimated $22 billion annual market potential, Walker said.
"By the year 2020, we believe there will be 3.4 billion people who can afford $3 per month for content, and that does not include China and India," he noted.