Update #52 - Unicorns, Joyy, and Disney Indonesia
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We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
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Global List of Tech Unicorns 🦄
The Hurun Research Institute creates an annual ranking of startup unicorns, which refers to private startup companies with a valuation of at least $1 Billion. They found 586 unicorns across the world and the #1 most valuable unicorn was Chinese fintech company Ant Group, valued at $150 Billion. Ant Group was a spinout of Alibaba and is planning a dual IPO in both Shanghai and Hong Kong later this year.
What’s interesting to note is that 80% of the world’s unicorns come from either the US or China. The US has 233 unicorns while China has 227. If you looked at a version of this list twenty years ago, China would have close to zero unicorns. Beijing is the city home to the most unicorns (93), followed by San Francisco (68), and then Shanghai (47). Another thing to point out—a large percentage of US unicorns are founded by first or second generation Chinese entrepreneurs.
More Livestreaming Success from Joyy 🎥
Chinese mobile video platform Joyy has recorded a 40% increase in livestream revenue in Q2 2020 vs Q2 2019. Joyy also said that their global monthly active users has gone up 21% year-on-year to now reach 457 Million. 91% of that user growth came from international markets outside of China. The Joyy Chairman and CEO Li Xueling has attributed much of this growth to success in livestreaming, particularly from Joyy’s app Bigo Live.
Joyy is yet another Chinese mobile video company that most people in the West don’t know. Joyy is publicly traded on the Nasdaq (with a current market cap of $7 Billion) and was previously known as YY. The company owns a group of apps including livestreaming app Bigo Live, video app Likee, and gaming app Hago. Over 90% of Joyy’s total revenue across apps comes from livestreaming. The livestream trend and growth this year is massive, and Joyy is just the latest example. For companies whose revenue comes primarily from livestreaming, coronavirus might actually come as a blessing in disguise.
Disney’s New Launch in Indonesia 🇮🇩
Disney has announced that they will be launching their Disney+ Hotstar subscription streaming service in Indonesia on September 5. This platform will include classic Disney content from properties like Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, and also over 300 Indonesian film titles. Disney is partnering with local Indonesian telco Telkomsel for this platform and is actively hiring new employees for their Indonesian office. Disney+ launched in India in April 2020 and already has 60 Million subscribers worldwide.
Outside of Singapore, Indonesia is the most competitive Southeast Asian tech market and in terms of population, Indonesia is the fourth biggest country in the world. Disney will be competing with several other streaming platforms in Indonesia like Netflix, iflix, Viu, and GoPlay, so their success is not guaranteed.
