Strengthening Movie Streaming, GoPlay Collaborates with CJ ENM

Decacorn Indonesia, Gojek hooked up an entertainment company CJ ENM HK to strengthen its movie streaming service, GoPlay. Through this collaboration, films such as Parasite to Train to Busan can be accessed via GoPlay.

CJ ENM HK is a subsidiary of a company from South Korea, CJ ENM. Through this collaboration, the two corporations will launch tvN Movies. GoPlay has several services, namely video-on-demand subscription (SVoD), live streaming, and rental or transactional-video-on-demand (TvoD). Meanwhile, tvN Movies will enter SVoD.

TvN Movies service can be accessed starting today. “This enriches our catalog with premium quality Asian content that viewers in Indonesia love,” said VP Marketing GoPlay Sasha Sunu quoted in a press release, Tuesday (6/10).

Based on Statista’s survey in February, 49.2% of the total 500 respondents really like dramas from South Korea. As many as 39.2% said they liked it, and only 10.6% did not. Statista also noted that revenue from film sales in South Korea reached around 2.5 trillion won last year.

At least 609 films were produced in 2019. One of the most successful films is Parasite. Bong Joon-ho’s film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In addition, it became the first non-English language film to win an Academy Award for best film.

The Collaboration with CJ ENM is Considered a Big Leap for Gojek

GoPlay also plans to broadcast Parasite on the platform starting this month. In addition, some content will be broadcast, namely Ashfall, The Divine Fury, Innocent Witness, Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days to Train to Busan.

Sunu said that tvN Movies are synonymous with South Korean popular films or blockbusters. Cooperation with CJ ENM is considered as a big leap for the company. Meanwhile, GoPlay focuses on empowering local filmmakers through GoPlay Original.

“We prioritize innovation and collaboration as an effort to meet Indonesia’s entertainment needs,” said Sunu. In addition to collaboration, GoPlay launched two services to attract more consumers, namely rental and live broadcasts. To be able to hook consumers and compete with IndoXXI to Netflix, GoPlay relies on the Gojek ecosystem with 190 million users.

GoPlay is aggressively providing promotions with bundling package schemes or combining products. This is done to attract consumers to subscribe. For example, the GoFood and GoPlay packages.

Digital Films are More in Demand during the Pandemic

In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has increased interest in watching films on digital platforms. This is because community activities outside the home are limited and malls, including cinemas, are not operating. GoPlay also noted that visits to the platform increased 10 times during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even so, Edy did not deny that some people access the illegal movie streaming such as IndoXXI, Lk21, and screenaca21. However, there are some frictions or obstacles that users experience when using the website.

The bottlenecks in question include long download times or poor video quality. Edy is optimistic that some consumers are looking for a pleasant viewing experience. “Videos or films on our platform have high-quality content. They can easily get it from an affordable price point of view,” said Edy.

Apart from that, GoPlay competes with other VoD giants such as Netflix. However, Edy thinks that the number of players in this industry will have a positive impact. “If there are other players like Netflix who have the same goal (to advance Indonesian films), that is very good for us,” he said. After all, based on the data he has, players in the VoD industry such as GoPlay and Netflix have never controlled their own niche. In the United States (US) for example, 70% of consumers subscribe to two services at once. In addition, GoPlay focuses on providing Indonesian films