APAC Issue 6 2018

APAC / Issue 6 2018 5 NEWS , The platform behind Australia’s largest token sale to date $39M AUD has re- cently announced a partnership with Australia’s newest token sale. Ahead of their much anticipated public sale, intimate.io has formal- ly announced that it has made a serious commitment to Havven to building the intimate trust and rep- utation system on the Havven sta- blecoin platform which is a great sign for the Australian blockchain industry. “We have known Kain (Havven Founder) since we were both at- tending Bitcoin meetups in Syd- ney back in 2013, that seems like a lifetime ago now. It seems appro- priate that we are working together on the world stage. Havven has been a standout token sale this year. They are an amazing team and their stability mechanism is an exciting solution to a pressing issue” said Reuben Coppa CEO of intimate.io “We love that we can partner with friends that we respect from back home, but when you are rolling out global technol- ogy solutions it is the solution that really matters and Havven is a global leader.” Havven is a stablecoin, which is a solution to the much hyped volatil- ity that most people think of when they hear about cryptocurrency. Stablecoins like Havven are the next wave of cryptocurrencies making a splash, they work by altering the number of tokens in line with supply and demand. The next major milestone for Havven is partnering with platforms that are going to generate huge volumes of transactions, this deal is one of many to come from Havven which will build Havven into a huge trans- actional platform. intimate.io is launching a decen- tralised payment, trust and repu- tation system for the global adult industry, an industry that has been plagued by traditional banking bias and whose consumers crave privacy and safety. “This is the ex- act use case crypto has been wait- ing for” said Liam Robertson CEO of the crypto fund Alphabit when they invested $1.1M in February. Havven is the answer to volatility in the crypto and intimate.io repre- sents the first step in mass scale adoption. These are two of the big- gest challenges facing the crypto- currency world today and now there is a group of Australians who are leading the charge to solve this for the entire industry. “It’s great to see Australia pulling its weight in the cryptocurrency scene,” says Kain Warwick, found- er of Havven. “Power Ledger, CanYa, Horizon State, Havven, and now intimate.io too are all con- tributing to this exciting new eco- system. It’s also exciting to see the growing Australian cryptocurrency community support blockchain technology, and this partnership between Havven and intimate.io should signal the importance for different projects to collaborate and strengthen each other.” Two of Australia’s Blockchain Leaders Unite OTT video plat- forms, content creators and tele- com operators in APAC must collab- orate to boost revenues, says GlobalData. The over-the-top (OTT) video market in Asia-Pacific (APAC) is crowded and led by regional OTT players, who provide a diverse set of content across multiple languages and genres at com- petitive price points. Against this back drop, OTT video platforms, content creators and telecom op- erators must collaborate to boost revenues and profits of their re- spective businesses, suggests leading data and analytics com- pany GlobalData. The market features strong com- petition between regional players such as iflix, Viu and Hooq and international players such as Net- flix, Amazon and YouTube. In ad- dition, there is an intense compe- tition in local markets like China and South Korea. The company’s report ‘Over the Top Video in Asia Pacific’, reveals that due to high costs of content rights acquisition, OTT players are opting for more margin friend- ly content production strategies to secure subscribers and viewers. Malcolm Rogers, Telecom An- alyst at GlobalData, says: “Ex- clusive content deals, such as those for sports broadcast rights secures loyal viewers but at high cost, embarking on content pro- duction enables providers to bet- ter tailor content to target demo- graphics while offering more cost control compared to buying from major studios. Alternatively, rath- er than investing in labelled con- tent, some OTT platforms focus on live streams from amateurs and professionals, a strategy with a very low relative cost base.” In terms of models, most OTT providers in APAC offer a hybrid of live and on demand content, as well as a hybrid of advertising vid- eo on demand (AVoD), subscrip- tion video on demand (SVoD) and transactional video on demand (TVoD). OTT video platforms that focus on offering live streams of both professional and amateur con- tent creators in niche categories like gaming, fashion and makeup have mostly gained success. The new content format has wide ap- peal among young viewers, while investors are encouraged by the potential for quicker returns com- pared to traditional OTT video due to relatively lower costs. Rogers continued: “OTT pro- viders in the APAC region face heavy competition for both con- tent as well as customers. One common strategy to combat ris- ing costs of content is to invest in own content production. How- ever, this requires large amounts of investment capital and may require years before profitability is reached. “Another strategy is to focus on niche content with either lower content costs, or a dedicated and loyal fan base willing to pay a premium for niche content. Larg- er OTT players that are part of a wider group of media or technol- ogy companies may be the best poised for own content produc- tion.” In terms of pricing trends, region- al OTT video challengers price their SVoD services below the international giants Netflix and Amazon, while single market vid- eo platforms tend to price SVoD the lowest. According to the report, OTT companies need to consider their assets, the overall goal of the platform (e.g., becoming prof- itable as a standalone service, generating synergy with a sister business etc.), the offers of com- peting platforms in their footprint, and choose an appropriate con- tent and pricing strategy. Rogers concludes: “OTT video is increasingly gaining viewership over traditional content distribu- tion channels. Content production houses with related distribution businesses should not be afraid of OTT, but rather forge partner- ships with OTT platforms and telecom operators for content dis- tribution.”