Gojek’s video-streaming service independently raises money

Gojek’s video-streaming service GoPlay has closed its first independent funding round led by ZWC Partners and Golden Gate Ventures, along with Openspace Ventures, Ideosource Entertainment, and Redbadge Pacific.

This comes less than a week after Gojek announced new investments from Facebook, PayPal, Google, and Tencent as part of its ongoing series F round.

Gojek reps with Indonesian filmmakers / Photo credit: Gojek

GoPlay was launched in September last year to bridge the gap between mobile audiences and the country’s growing entertainment industry.

It serves as a platform for Indonesian filmmakers to introduce and distribute their work to a broader market, while providing consumers with access to locally produced movies and shows. It claims to have served hundreds of thousands of mobile users to date.

Last week, it was reported that Gojek would be spinning off GoPlay, which had secured about US$15 million in funding. Gojek declined to comment on the matter.

The new capital injection announced today will be used to enhance GoPlay’s technology to help local filmmakers better meet consumer demand for high-quality local content, according to a statement.

“Indonesia’s local pool of content creators need more avenues to showcase their talent, while our growing pool of mobile consumers want access to more local content at their fingertips,” said Edy Sulistyo, CEO of GoPlay. “There is huge potential here that is not being addressed by commercial movie theaters, and we are working hard to close the gap between supply and demand.”

According to Statista, Indonesia is the fourth-largest smartphone market globally after China, India, and the US. Its video-streaming sector raked in US$172 million in revenue in 2020 and is expected to reach US$274 million by 2024.

Some big players across Southeast Asia include US-based streaming giant Netflix, Malaysia-based Iflix – which just partnered with short-video platform TikTok – and Hong Kong-based Viu. Gojek’s archrival Grab partnered with Hooq before, but the Singtel-backed video streamer had filed for liquidation earlier this year.