emarketereMarketer.com conducted and published in recent weeks a number of research papers related to video consumption in the Asia Pacific region, which we have summarized in the following.

The New York based independent market research company has just been acquired last month by Axel Springer for $242 million.

emarketer1Continuing to provide insights and trends related to digital marketing, media and commerce, eMarketer.com revealed that it expects subscription video-on-demand (VOD) revenues in Asia Pacific to reach $4 billion in 2016. Furthermore, according to its data partner Media Partners Asia, revenues of $13 billion are expected till 2021.

A Digital TV Research Ltd. report from July 2015 noted that Japan had the most VOD household subscriptions of any country in the Asia Pacific region in 2015, with 9.9 million; South Korea was just behind at 7.9 million; India was a distant third at 2.6 million subscriptions, but the picture was expected to change considerably in a few years.

The firm projected that by 2020 Japan’s subscriptions would more than double to 20.5 million, by far the most households of any country in the region, but most notable is the coming rise of VOD subscriptions in China. While there were just 900,000 in 2015, there will be an estimated 12.3 million by 2020, a more than 13-fold increase that will push China to second place.

India will see significant growth from its 2015 figure as well, reaching 8.9 million in 2020. South Korea, meanwhile, will see steady but not remarkable growth, reaching 10.2 million.

Although there seems no doubt that Japan will continue to lead the region in VOD subscriptions, China is expected to become a major player in APAC’s VOD game in the years to come.

India's digital advertisers shift spending to video

Digital ad spending in India is experiencing a rapid rise, with eMarketer predicting earlier this year that the country’s online ad market would surpass more than $1 billion in investment by 2017.

Now, data from the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and research firm IMRB International is adding further insight into where exactly those digital dollars are heading. IAMAI and IMRB’s analysis of digital ad spending by format share found that video spending grew from 12% in 2014 to 17% in 2015, an increase of five percentage points and higher than any other format studied.

The growth in advertiser spending on video is attributable to a number of factors. IAMAI and IMRB point to the increasing availability of high-speed internet among consumers in India, which is contributing to more consumption of bandwidth-heavy video content. Another factor is an increase in spending on mobile video advertising, which Indian advertisers are using to target the country’s smartphone-obsessed mobile users.

An even more important factor for the increase in digital video spending may be its performance among mobile users. A July 2015 investigation by Millward Brown into the receptivity of mobile users in Asia Pacific to digital video ads found that mobile users in India were among the most receptive of any in the region, with 34% indicating they were amenable to the format.

Online video consumption levels off in Malaysia

Although online video consumption skyrockets in countries like China, other Asia Pacific markets like Malaysia are adopting the medium at slower pace, with TV maintaining an important role in consumers’ daily time spent with media.

According to data from ZenithOptimedia investigating the online video consumption habits of viewers in Malaysia, time spent watching online video will see a slight decrease between 2015 and 2017. Viewers are expected to watch 46 minutes of online video in 2017, whereas viewers watched 48.5 minutes in 2015.

ZenithOptimedia is not alone in suggesting viewers in Malaysia, even in younger age groups, are somewhat ambivalent about online video. A separate study from Epinion, investigating the types of digital, offline TV and video content viewed by young adult internet users in Malaysia, found offline TV was the most popular medium, mentioned by 40% of respondents. YouTube, by way of comparison, was mentioned by only 27% of respondents.

One reason for the continued popularity of offline TV as compared to online video may be a persistent gap in device usage between Malaysia’s more sophisticated urban centers and its less-connected rural areas.

Thailand sees high video ad volume and Indonesia mobile ad completion rates skyrocketing

More desktop digital video ads are served in Thailand per day on TubeMogul’s programmatic platform than any other country in Southeast Asia, according to TubeMogul’s Q1 2016 quarterly update. Meanwhile, Indonesia leads the region in daily mobile video ads on the platform (including pre-roll and in-app ads on mobile phones and tablets).

According to eMarketer’s April 2016 estimate, there are 161.4 million mobile phone users in Indonesia, compared to Thailand’s 46.7 million users, so the fact that there are 22.4 million daily mobile video ads on TubeMogul’s ad platform in Indonesia is perhaps surprising. After all, with over 100 million more mobile phone users than Thailand, having only 8 million more daily ads suggests a heavier ad presence per user in Thailand.

emarketer4But it also seems that the mobile market in Indonesia is rapidly rising.

For example, on TubeMogul, at least, Q1 2015 saw a completion rate of just 30% for mobile digital video ads in Indonesia; by Q1 2016, that figure had soared to 77%. Conversely, desktop ad completion rates are steadily dropping, from 75% in Q1 2015 to 50% by Q1 2016.

The picture in Thailand, meanwhile, is a bit less clear. Desktop video ads are yo-yoing between about 70% and the low 60% range, and the trend seems generally to be declining.

Mobile ads, rebounding from a severe plunge to just a 9% completion rate in Q2 2015, are hovering around 40%. So while Thailand sees more desktop ads than anywhere else in the region, it appears that, at least with regard to mobile ads, Indonesia is on the rise.

In Singapore, younger consumers are the most avid digital video viewers

More than half (54%) of consumers in Singapore watch digital video, research found, but there are dramatic differences in content consumption by age.

According to November 2015 research from Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), 15- to 34-year-olds were the most likely group of consumers to watch digital video—nearly nine in 10 did so. Digital video viewership was also high among younger teens, and even among 7- to 10-year-olds, nearly two-thirds watched digital videos.

Viewership dropped off sharply among older consumers, however. Less than half of those ages 35 to 54 watched digital video, along with just 9% of those between 55 and 65.

YouTube was by far the most common viewing platform, with 96% of digital video viewers of all ages hitting up the site. About six in 10 watched videos on social networks. Sites with pirated content came in third, at 20% of the audience.
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Across, all age groups, digital video viewing was a habit among those who participated in it at all. Well over half of digital video viewers said they watched daily, regardless of age—daily viewership was lowest among the oldest respondents, but still, 59% of 55-to-65-year-old digital video viewers watched every day. Among younger age groups, the share viewing daily rose as high as 81%.

That does not necessarily mean, however, that digital video viewers in Singapore are spending a lot of time on the activity. A plurality of viewers across age groups said they preferred digital videos under 5 minutes in length. Even among the most likely group to watch, 15- to 34-year-olds, 57% of digital video viewers said they liked videos 15 minutes long or shorter, including 42% who preferred ‘snackable’ clips under 5 minutes.

Source: eMarketer.com