After going viral across Southeast Asia, hyperlocal blog Coconuts.co heads to India

It’s been about two years since Coconuts.co, a network of city news websites, announced seed funding. Nine months into its existence, in December 2013, Coconuts had cracked the one million monthly unique visitor mark.

In March 2015, the media startup hit a new record with four million unique visits across its network. Coconuts has proven traction with a special blend of hyperlocal content delivered in English with a unique, snarky voice, and seems to have struck a nerve with Southeast Asia’s urban crowd, both expats and globally-minded locals.

Coconuts was started by Byron Perry, an expat living in Bangkok, in 2011. In the beginning, it wasn’t much more than a personal blog, and Perry was writing the majority of the content himself. Now, the Coconuts network spans eight cities across Southeast Asia, including – its latest additions – Bali and Yangon, with editors in each city.

Each site is fast paced and funny, humorous, and sarcastic when appropriate. The key difference to other media is this voice, according to Perry. Each city covers a wide range of topics from city-specific hard news, restaurants, and lifestyle to “viral silly stuff,” as Perry puts it.

Building on video

In addition to the city-based editorial teams, Perry introduced Coconuts TV, a video production arm that creates audiovisual content on news, food, fashion, and travel with a regional focus, aimed at an international audience.

Coconuts main source of revenue so far has been from advertising and sponsored content. Though Perry declined to disclose specific numbers, he shared that one of their partners for sponsored content is Smart (a mobile phone carrier in the Philippines), with whom they have a 10-month contract and produce content for regularly. Another partnership has been with Singha, the Thai beer company, for which Coconuts is producing a 12-episode video series in Coconut’s food channel called Instakitchen.

Coconuts’ irreverent, colloquial voice so far has not been a barrier for brands to get on board as advertisers, according to Perry. “Brands want a piece of that, they like that you’re edgy, that you speak the slang.”

Another advantage Coconuts has over other local sites, according to Perry, is the network effect. “We have an advantage for advertisers in that they can reach all those markets through one media outlet.”

Coconut’s video content is becoming an increasingly important part of the media company’s monetization opportunities. According to Perry, Coconuts has sold video content to European TV channels. Footage from a Thai boxing fight in prison, for example, was picked up by German broadcaster RTL. Perry says he sees a future in further developing Coconut’s video syndication strategy, and has struck up a partnership with online video distribution startup Rightster.

Coconuts India on the horizon

For Coconuts, the recent spread to cities in Indonesia and Yangon in Myanmar was a big step, since this move placed the startup in markets with large potential for growth and so far, little competition. While Southeast Asian cities have a number of city magazines, few of them are exclusively online. “We are social media savvy, and we have none of the hassles of print to worry about,” says Perry.