Online video use growing in APAC

SINGAPORE: Consumers in Asia Pacific are watching online video in increasingly large numbers, with China boasting the biggest audience and Japan delivering the greatest level of engagement.

According to figures from comScore, the research firm, 266m people from China streamed this kind of content on the web in June, equating to 79.4% of the country's internet population.

These figures stood at 61.5m and 83.7% for Japan, while India's current audience of 44.6m represents 73% of the connected community.

Vietnam, however, recorded the highest proportional uptake, as 89.8% of its citizens that could access the net viewed such material.

Hong Kong came next on this metric, as 88.7% of its web users, equating to 4m consumers, had viewed online video. Singapore saw penetration rates reach 84.5%, or 2.8m people in all.

Adoption levels fell to their lowest in Indonesia, where 8.7m viewers, or 66.9% of the possible total, watched internet video.

"Online video viewing has become a leading pastime for the majority of today's online consumers, presenting new opportunities for content providers and advertisers to reach their key audiences with engaging content," said Joe Nguyen, comScore's SVP for Asia Pacific.

In volume terms, Japanese web users participating in this activity enjoyed 242.5 videos apiece in June, ahead of 180.7 for Hong Kong, the only regional markets bettering the global average of 159.4.

Elsewhere, their counterparts in Singapore accessed an average 158.1 items of content each, bettering Australia's 151.4 and New Zealand's 139.7.

Once again, Indonesia yielded the lowest scores, on 53.5, trailing the Philippines, which logged 69.4, India, registering 76.8, and China, where individuals played back 78.3 videos.

Upon breaking out data for selected markets, comScore revealed that Google's sites, led by YouTube, were the most-visited video properties in Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Vevo took second in Indonesia and third in the Philippines, while Facebook claimed second spot in the latter country, and third in both Indonesia and Taiwan.

"As content options expand and connection speeds advance, we expect to see more people spend more time watching online video in developing markets, which presents an exciting opportunity for marketers throughout the region," said Nguyen.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 17 August 2012

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