iWorld
Video industry is set for greater growth as opportunities abound beyond traditional TV in Asia
Mumbai: The Asia Video Summit marked a successful return to Hong Kong, with almost 300 delegates attending the conference in person and virtually.
Hosted by the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), the Summit conversations centred around the key themes of ‘The Making of Korea and the Model for Who’s Next?’, ‘Video at the Crossroads’, ‘Technology Taking Over’, ‘The State of Video 2023’ and ‘The Advance of Advertising’, with a special opening session to set the stage, led by Henry Tan, Special Advisor, Astro, & Chairman, Astro Awani and Vivek Couto, Executive Director, Media Partners Asia with Louis Boswell, CEO, AVIA.
While recognising there are many important and challenging issues evolving in the industry, the mood was upbeat across the two-day summit. The conversation with Couto and Tan touched upon much of this and while recognising the importance of advertising on premium video which was growing, Tan also added that there was no better business than long term subscription, even if for now the mantra of streaming companies was to give the consumer full flexibility.
Discussing how Korea had generated such success in ‘How The Wave Was Launched’, Blintn CEO Peter Choe said that the Korean “export mindset” had been a key factor while Studio Dragon producer and advisor Hyun Park said that Korean writers were very good at changing their style of storytelling to capture the market. However, the most important was to understand what the consumer wants, and that’s what Korea has become so good at, added Warner Bros. Discovery GM Korea Jeeyoung Lee.
This focus on content continued with local experts on Chinese and Thai entertainment. In both markets, a good ecosystem of support and incentives was welcomed to nurture local talent. Cooperation within the region could possibly push growth across Asian markets, said TVB deputy GM – legal and international operations Desmond Chan. There was particular optimism around the prospects for Thai content, and while recognizing this, The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, Thailand commissioner Prof. Pirongrong Ramasoota stressed the importance of “light-touch governance” to allow “industry players to be more creative and innovative with their content.”
The topic of monetization was also widely debated over the two days of the Summit. Gaming and e-commerce were seen as additional touchpoints and opportunities for cross-pollination with video to grow the consumer base. VS Media CEO Ivy Wong shared that one-click purchase and seamless integration was what made e-commerce so successful in China, compared to other regions where consumers will have to go through several clicks to make the purchase. For Akamai Technologies, head of solutions engineering HK William Wong, the key takeaway was not to focus on a single platform, but to diversify to capture different markets.
With the shift from linear to digital advertising, the time for CTV (Connected TV) could be upon us as “CTV is here to stay and will continue to grow. Dollars follow eyeballs. . . premium content with quality will earn more credible trust for our brands,” opined The Trade Desk GM of inventory development Douglas Choy. Magnite MD Asia Gavin Buxton added that collaboration was key in terms of cross measurement to take CTV onwards, with audience and ad experience being the key driver behind that.
AVIA CEO Louis Boswell presented highlights from a recent commissioned research that measured the impact of advertising in a premium OTT environment versus mass streaming video environments (UGC / video sharing services) including (1) consumers felt that premium OTT was higher quality (58 per cent OTT vs 36 per cent mass) and commanded higher attention than mass streaming video environments (49 per cent OTT vs 35 per cent mass); and (2) both product recall (10 per cent uplift) and brand recall (12 per cent uplift) were significantly higher for the same ads when shown in a premium environment.
Closing off the Summit with a positive outlook, TV5MONDE MD APAC Alexandre Muller said that Asia was where there were growth and opportunities for the video industry. “There are definitely challenges but people are excited because we are looking for solutions,” said AsiaSat CEO Roger Tong. “The bright spot is the diversity that we are seeing. . . There is so much diversity that it allows us to be more creative and if we maintain our creativity in solving the problems, then we will be able to perform better,” concluded Tong.
The Asia Video Summit is proudly supported by Lead Sponsor Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Gold Sponsors BytePlus, InvestHK, INVIDI, Irdeto, Warner Brother Discovery and Silver Sponsors AsiaSat, Broadpeak, Endeavor Streaming, FashionTV, France24, Lightning, Magnite, MEASAT, Nagra, Paramount, Publica.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
