How Viu is remaking global hits for Asia – Korean dramas especially – and developing original content like Running Man and EXchange

More recently Viu has turned to focusing on remakes of Korean dramas.

“In the beginning we asked ourselves, ‘If a title in its original Korean form was already successful on Viu, would people watch it again if we produced it in a local language?’ The results show that we have done quite well,” Lee says.

The Malaysian adaptation of W: Two Worlds (2023) and the Indonesian adaptation of The World of the Married (2022) topped viewership charts. Reborn Rich (2022) is set for a Thai remake and the Philippines will have its version of What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018). The Hong Kong remake of Business Proposal (2022) was also well received.

The Korean wave hit Hong Kong long before Viu was launched in 2015, with TVB and the now defunct ATV already airing popular K-dramas. Lee saw the need to offer viewers the latest hit shows as quickly as possible, partly to deter viewers from pirated content.

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“So we started offering a quick turnaround for subtitling. We wanted to shorten the time between the on-air schedule and Viu release so it could be fast as four hours,” she says. “That’s really important in Asia, because if you’re late, people won’t value it.”

Lee adds that about 80 per cent of Viu’s new users today still choose Korean content as their first title to watch on the platform.

“Obviously over the years, we’ve seen an explosion of Korean content – music and video content – and the popularity is beyond Asia. It’s almost quite mainstream now. As a category, we definitely saw it expand,” she says.

According to its annual results released last week , Viu’s revenue grew by 27 per cent year-on-year to US$261 million in 2023, propelled by subscription and advertising sales growth. Viu said its paid subscribers increased by 10 per cent to 13.4 million and it had 62.4 million monthly active users at the end of 2023.

“We have maintained high revenue growth over the years as an Asian player,” Lee says. “Some [streaming platforms] are refocusing or maybe pulling back a bit on the Asian content slate, but Viu has always stayed true to being a home-grown Asian player.”

Lee says Viu is aware of the changing taste among its more than 60 million active users in Southeast Asia. “Historically Korea is well known for romantic comedies, but I think we have moved way beyond that.”

Viu is now looking to focus more on producing its own content. Viu Original Studio, set up in 2021, is planning to launch around 23 to 25 original productions this year.

“Developing original IPs takes much longer, because [they involve the] seeding of an idea and writing the script for the first time,” Lee says.

Lee also mentioned the potential of unscripted content. “Unscripted shows are still big. Running Man is still one of our top titles and people love it, but newer formats like EXchange, a dating reality show, did very well.”

In the post-pandemic era, the streamer has been keen on diversifying its platform. It is expanding meet-and-greet events such as Viu Scream Dates.

“We launched it last year, because at the end of the pandemic, viewers were keen to go out and during the three years of the pandemic, they watched a lot more content. They want to meet the cast and connect further,” says Lee.

Cha Eun-woo, the lead from Viu Original A Good Day To Be A Dog, will kick-start Viu Scream Dates in Singapore (April 13) and Indonesia (April 20).

Lee says Viu will continue to invest heavily in the Southeast Asian market. The platform is currently available in 16 markets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa.

“Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are the fastest growing markets in terms of growth and market-size potential,” she says.

“Even though we have over 60 million active users and over 13 million paid subscribers, we’re still scratching the surface: Indonesia alone has [a population of more than 250 million]. So we’re focused on increasing penetration in the markets and bringing our content to non-metro cities.”

Viu doesn’t have immediate plans to enter the crowded Korean market. “I would say there are enough players in Korea. So that is not something in our cart, right now,” Lee says.

Viu will continue to strengthen partnerships with Korean production companies and make local adaptations, calling it a way of helping the Korean IP industry to gain “long tail” success.

“I think the success of the IP lies not just in its first creation but also in its derivative creation to popularise it in other languages. I think that would help the industry as a whole,” Lee says.

“We hope we can have access to bigger projects in Korea.”