The demand for Chinese content is steadily growing across Southeast Asia. As Asian streaming platforms offer an array of high-quality productions of Chinese content, how will this demand shape up in the years to come?

According to a recent study on Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics published by Media Partners Asia, the growth of streamers such as WeTV and iQiyi has strengthened Chinese content consumption in Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, boosted by the significant volume of free content on the platforms. 

The growth of Chinese content consumption reflects the positive results of a recent study that iQiyi conducted in August using Pollfish. Presented during The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang press conference, the pilot study surveyed 5,200 respondents across 26 countries. Among its findings are 76% of global respondents started sampling Chinese dramas in the past two years, with 43% watching these content on streaming platforms. The study also revealed that 1 in 2 of those surveyed claimed to enjoy watching Chinese dramas and would recommend them to others.

The study also revealed that respondents who enjoyed Chinese content come from Thailand (80%), Singapore (70%), and Malaysia (71%). Additionally, over 40% consider it important for a streaming service to offer Chinese language content.

What’s driving the demand for Chinese content? 

Kuek Yu-Chuang, the Vice President of International Business at iQiyi said that three key factors are driving up the demand for Chinese content: improvement in the quality of content, streaming technology, and marketing efforts not seen in the last three to five years.

“There is a tight correlation between the economics and financing of content with the kind of quality and demand, and I think Chinese content is in a virtuous cycle right now,” Kuek said. “The Chinese domestic market is just big enough to have that demand. And with that demand comes competition. And with competition, you are looking at different players.” 

Kuek said that increased production budgets correlated with high production budgets and increased production value, which then goes back and generates more demand. The Vice President also noted that they’re currently seeing the demand move from China to outside of China. 

iQiyi’s 2018 Chinese drama The Story of Yanxi Palace generated a lot of buzz online, with the show becoming one of the most googled shows of 2018, according to the BBC. The streamer also listened in on social media, where people made comparisons of Chinese titles with Korean titles, or mentioning Chinese stars and Korean stars interchangeably. Kuek commented, “I think these are all the signs of the quality of the content is ready to break out of domestic markets and go to the international market.” 

He added that another factor that is driving the success of Chinese drama is the current streaming technology. “Without streaming availability in more traditional environments, we would probably have to compete for theatre screens. We would [also] have to compete for programming spaces with the broadcasters because with streaming, there’s unlimited shelf space. I think the global audience gets to enjoy this kind of plurality or diversity of entertainment choices. I think streaming has made it possible that people could sample different things, and we’re a beneficiary of that trend,” Kuek said. 

Meanwhile, Ofanny Choi, the President of Celestial Tiger Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based channel provider specialising in Asian and Chinese content, commented that there are two factors that have led to the rise of Chinese content. First, the change in content consumption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of digitization. 

Earlier, Kuek said that higher production budgets mean an increase in production value and Ofanny seems to agree. The President said that the huge investments in Chinese entertainment had led to higher production budgets allowing for better quality content to be made across Chinese movies and dramas, further amplifying the demand. 

Ofanny added, “As more successful programmes get exported internationally, the awareness for Chinese language content also rises and this brings on more demand. We now see Chinese stars becoming more internationally acclaimed, and young Chinese stars and idols already have a huge fan base outside of their country of origin.” 

Marianne Lee, Chief Content Acquisition and Development at Viu said that there are cultural similarities between the markets in Southeast Asia as a whole. Consumers in Asia need to consume content daily, and apart from global titles, they want to see similar faces and stories that resonate in their own language, and that has been Viu’s focus. 

“This focus sees us streaming primarily Asian content for the region,” Marianne said. Viu started off with Korean content and they had a lot of success in the genre, eventually branching off to Chinese content produced in various parts of Asia as well as Japanese content. “We have progressed to producing original local content in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, to name a few,” she added. 

Read more about investments and consumer growth in Chinese drama here.

This story appears in the October-November 2021 issue of Television Asia Plus.