Emtek’s Vidio wants to be a more social version of YouTube for Indonesians

Vidio team

At the end of last year, Indonesia’s three major telcos launched their own 4G networks and last week, news broke of satellite broadband getting ready to blanket the nation with high-speed internet next year. These developments are sure to create buzz and bring attention to video streaming sites. Combine that with a young generation that shows preference for social media and it makes sense that we’ll start to see more video-oriented, social media startups in Jakarta.

In recent weeks, Tech in Asia has looked into sites like Zeemi.tv, CliponYu, and MaxyArt. Now we’re taking a peek at a video project that’s been live in the archipelago since November 2014. Vidio is an initiative under the umbrella of Kreatif Media Karya (KMK), a branch of Indonesia’s second largest media firm Emtek.

“Originally, two years ago, the idea was that we wanted to create the YouTube for Indonesia,” explains Prami Rachmiadi, CMO of Vidio and former country agency lead for Google Indonesia. “But what we found is that we wanted to position ourselves as more of a video social media than just another YouTube because Indonesians love social media very much.”

KMK is well-known in Jakarta as the developer of Emtek’s popular local media sites including news brand Liputan6, celebrity news portal Bintang, job site Karir, and football portal Bola.

Vidio’s VP of product, Hadikusuma Wahab, adds that the team pays a lot of attention to the discoverability of content on the site. He mentions that YouTube users typically search for the content they want to view, whereas Vidio’s Indonesian users follow one another and look out for each other’s video updates.

See: MaxyArt lets Indonesian brands crowdsource video advertising

Contests are key

Similar to Twitter or Instagram, each Vidio user has a profile where other people can see the number of videos they’ve uploaded. It also lets users browse through the number of video collections (video albums) someone has created, as well as how many other Vidio users they’re following and who follow them. Again like many other social networks, Vidio users are supposed to upload a photo of themselves and a background banner.

Vidio’s content is largely user-generated (UGC), says Rachmiadi, but it also serves as the place where Emtek’s media outlets put their TV content after it airs. Additionally, Vidio appears across all of KMK’s online media portals. Wahab explains that its functionality is seamless, as each clip uploaded to Vidio comes with its own link that can be easily embedded into blog posts, exactly like YouTube.

However, both Wahab and Rachmiadi say that Vidio’s special sauce comes from its contests. The site has an area dedicated to competitions for users. Participants can submit videos of themselves showcasing their talents (like singing) or their work (like short films) for a chance to win cash, prizes, recognition, and TV coverage that can help jumpstart their careers. Rachmiadi adds that these competitions also help improve the quality of Vidio’s curated content. He explains: