Turner Asia Pacific has taken what it terms a ‘significant minority stake’ in Vietnamese digital media and creator network POPS Worldwide...
The investment follows the launch of Turner’s children’s brand Boomerang on the POPS Kids over-the-top (OTT) video platforms in Vietnam in April 2016.
“With its unique proposition, POPS has shown to be very adept at attracting and engaging audiences with its local content and creator network, and this agreement allows Turner to venture into this growing side of the business,” said Ricky Ow (pictured), president of Turner Asia Pacific.
“Our investment is part of Turner’s desire to place fans and consumers at the very core – to reach and engage them with branded content and playlists – as well as target diverse demographics in new ways. With a surge of video-on-demand viewing in both Vietnam and Southeast Asia, these are exciting times for two companies that share a very similar culture of innovation.”
Since its launch at the end of 2011, POPS has doubled its views annually, and has now achieved over 40 billion lifetime views. More than two billion users view its content monthly, and 32 million subscribe to its YouTube network.
Esther Nguyen, founder and CEO of POPS Worldwide, added: “We are excited to have Turner come on board. Using this investment, we can supercharge our ambitious vision to lead digital entertainment in Southeast Asia. We plan to expand our network onto more mobile and non-traditional platforms, invest heavily in content production and open new markets. Over the past year, we have been working closely with Turner on their Kids content.”
As well as managing a partner channel network, POPS operates a slate of branded premium channels. The POPS team created and manages YouTube channel, POPS Music and edutainment channel, POPS Kids. Its video network has recently been expanded to include Daily Motion and Facebook, and the company has also launched a new POPS Kids app for mobile users.