WeTV unfolds plan to bring original Thai content to the world

WeTV today reaffirmed its position as the leading video streaming platform for the best Asian entertainment by announcing its business plan for 2024.

With a focus on building sustainable growth by connecting a full loop cycle of WeTV ecosystem, its market forays will highlight two key strategies.

While content will be spearheaded by WeTV ORIGINAL productions along with boy's love series in a variety of genres and the company's flagship idol survival show, CHUANG ASIA, that is tipped to help bring Thai soft power to the world, enriched touchpoints will introduce newly-developed features for a richer experience of the users as well as greater effectiveness and better value for advertisers.

Collaboration with business partners will also bring more of quality content to the viewers. Most recently, WeTV made news headlines by introducing Chinese megastar Zhao Lusi as its global brand ambassador, ready to deliver quality entertainment all year round.

Kanokporn Prachayaset, WeTV Thailand Country Manager, Tencent Thailand said, "This year WeTV is seeing continued growth in Southeast Asia, in line with the growth of Tencent Video overall. This also coincides with the growth of the over-the-top (OTT) market in the region which is witnessing intensified competition from numerous players." 

While the popularity of Chinese content and artists kept growing among Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z viewers, WeTV's monthly active users (MAUs) rose by more than 20% and subscription revenue increased by 40 %.

In Thailand alone, our subscription revenue soared 62%. With 45 million downloads and 13.5 million MAUs recorded, WeTV Thailand is currently the top-ranked platform in advertising video on demand (AVOD) and the second in subscription video on demand (SVOD). The figures also revealed that users in Thailand who view WeTV content on home entertainment devices rose by 30% year on year.

WeTV Thailand's business plan for 2024 will focus on connecting its ecosystem using two key strategies.

Firstly, WeTV ORIGINAL content strategy will highlight boy's love series alongside CHUANG ASIA, which is the company's flagship idol survival show, plus a wide variety of other original content provided directly by Tencent Video.

To bid a farewell to 2023, a year-end release of Intern in My Heart by BRAVO! Studios, a subsidiary of GMM Studios International, the series will be broadcast simultaneously in China.

Next year, six up to eight titles of WeTV ORIGINAL boy's love series will be produced in partnership with leading production companies, such as Kongthup Production, Dee Hup House and Mandeework.

In another big move taken in the entertainment scene, WeTV recently appointed Zhao Lusi, the Chinese megastar who has a global fanbase, as its global brand ambassador to help broaden the brand awareness of WeTV.

On key highlights in 2024, Kanokporn underlined the launch CHUANG ASIA's Thai edition as the company's mega project. "For the first time, Asia's pioneering idol survival show originated by Tencent Video will search for the first idol girl group in Thailand to debut internationally. This will also be the show's first-ever collaboration with Jackson Wang as the Lead Mentor.

Moreover, the first girl group formed in the Thai edition will make their debut under RYCE Entertainment. The synergy with co-investors in Thailand and abroad, including Have Fun Media, RYCE Entertainment, one31, GMMTV, and 411 Entertainment will strengthen the show in terms of production and ensure world-class capability development for the talents to be debuted.

CHAUNG ASIA will start airing in February 2024 with global viewability on WeTV, plus broadcasting on one31 channel in Thailand and on selected TV channels in Southeast Asia."

Secondly, Enriched Touchpoint's strategy will take user experience to the next level by connecting online to offline experiences and building a strong community. Among them, a new feature called 'Bubble' will be launched, enabling fans to interact closely with their favourite artists and stars whereas the consumer brand experience will be innovatively connected.

Besides, features for advertisers will also be introduced, such as the 'New VDO Splash Screen' that is tipped to increase click-through rate (CTR) by 100%.

"Under our original content strategy, we work with leading production companies and actively search for talented artists and actors to join WeTV projects through our partnership with HEADLINER THAILAND, a fully integrated actor-artist development and management agency for young talents seeking to enter Thai and international entertainment scenes.

With a strong ecosystem built, combined with enriched user experience created through all these efforts, we are eying at a 2.5-fold increase in Thai content viewership base by 2024 along with continued leadership as the video streaming platform for the best Asian entertainment.

" Moreover, we hope to play our part in bringing Thai entertainment content, as a soft power, to the world to help broaden business opportunities for the Thai entertainment industry and provide a platform for customers, marketers, and leading media agencies to take advantage of effective 360-degree marketing," concluded Kanokporn.