The Indo Tekno podcast is hosted by Alan Hellawell, who is the founder of Gizmo Advisors and a venture partner at Alpha JWC Ventures. In this episode, Alan talks to GoPlay CEO Edy Sulistyo.
Indonesia seems primed to leapfrog into the online media age. With only 0.6 movie screens per 100,000 in population—roughly one twentieth of US levels—consumption of video-on-demand has skyrocketed this year, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic has kept people at home, and offline theaters have closed their doors.
This week’s guest, GoPlay CEO Edy Sulistyo, believes that the premium video-on-demand platform possesses three critical elements in capturing Indonesia’s elusive multi-billion dollar streaming media crown: A deep commitment to cultivating premium local content, a wide array of new business models in partnering with content owners, and intense collaboration with Indonesian tech behemoth Gojek.
The Indonesian audience will spend a mere USD 84 per capita on entertainment and media in 2021. This is a tiny fraction of the USD 2,300 that the average American is likely to disburse. As Indonesia’s online media spend grows, how does one win out-sized wallet share? This is a question that remained unanswered after the recent demise of two major regional streaming platforms.
Sulistyo outlines a number of important strategies. Only 35% of films in Indonesia were locally produced in 2018, versus nearly 65% in China. He envisions domestically produced content crossing 50% shortly, and climbing higher as GoPlay and others work steadily to improve the quality of local programming.
Key to this encouraging growth will also be the various revenue sharing models that GoPlay has refined since being founded in 2018.
One of the single largest blockers to online media consumption has been a lack of viable payment options. GoPlay’s surging subscriber numbers are in large part a result of its tight integration within the Gojek ecosystem and the convenience of GoPay as a means of paying for content. Just as powerful is GoPlay’s ability to leverage big data being generated across the Gojek ecosystem to be able to target users effectively.
Listen to the full podcast here.