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Jofie Yordan · · 5 min readTurning dramas into carts: Inside Vidio’s ecommerce playbook
Indonesian video streaming unicorn Vidio is taking a swing at something that even giants like Netflix and Disney+ haven’t done: adding shoppable features to its content.
Launched in August, Vidio Shopping lets viewers buy products that appear in free-to-air TV shows, soap operas, reality shows, movies, and sports matches – directly within its mobile app. The feature isn’t available on its smart TV app yet.
The company has partnered with Shopee for the feature, featuring items from the marketplace and letting users check out via a picture-in-picture interface, an overlay window that enables them to shop while the show keeps playing.
Vidio Shopping / Image credit: Tech in Asia
These items are tailored to what the user is watching. For example, Vidio Shopping will show Korean beauty or skincare products while viewers are watching Korean dramas, while it will display children’s or mom-and-babycare items during animations.
After clicking on an item, users are redirected to the Shopee app or website to complete the purchase. Vidio earns a commission on each transaction, though the company did not disclose how much.
Hadikusuma Wahab, chief product officer at Vidio, tells Tech in Asia that between August and October, order volumes more than doubled and gross merchandise value (GMV) rose 1.5x.
Those early gains matter. After earning unicorn status in July, Vidio’s next task is profitability. But is this video commerce play defensible?
Targeting non-subscribers
In Q1 2025, Vidio led Indonesia’s video-on-demand market with 4.8 million subscribers, or a 22% share. Its monthly active users (MAUs) stood at 45 million, indicating that about 90% are free users. Most of its users access Vidio through the mobile app rather than the smart TV app.
Despite its market lead, the platform isn’t profitable, and the company declined to share its most recent financial figures. Vidio is owned by Surya Citra Media, which is part of Emtek Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia.
Wahab says the shopping feature is part of Vidio’s push to find revenue beyond advertising and subscriptions. Until now, it has relied on pre-roll ads that run before a show and mid-roll ads that break into the video like traditional commercials.
See also: Up next for new unicorn Vidio: the push to profit
A different kind of impulse buying
Enough to move the needle?
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