When we first launched Brilio in March 2015 our focus was solely on written content. We had an extremely strong and experienced editorial team that we brought over from other leading publishers and written content was what we knew best. We saw a clear gap in the market for millennial-first content in Indonesia and we went for it.
Over the past 18 months we have seen this strategy succeed far beyond our initial expectations. As of the end of November 2016 we drove over 114 million monthly pageviews to our platform across all of our distribution channels. In terms of monthly pageview traffic we have grown over 76 times from when we first launched the site.
During the early days of Brilio our primary concern was in finding our voice. Our goal at that time was to make sure that we were genuinely in touch with our audience and producing the kind of content they wanted. Today it is clear that our voice resonates with a massive and growing audience in Indonesia, and while maintaining that voice is a critical part of our business, innovating to find the best formats for that voice is what will take our business to the next level.
This is what drove us to move aggressively into video earlier this year. When we launched our video segment in March 2016 we were producing about 5 videos per month. Today we produce over 40 videos per month, a number which will continue to grow as long as our audiences continue to show a preference for video content.
Our audience engages more with videos than other media formats. In our early days, our best videos achieved around 100,000 views. Last month our best videos (organically) generated over 4 million views and 30,000 shares.
We are still at the very beginning of our video journey, but we are now poised for our next big leap: Live broadcasting and taking on Television head-to-head via digital live platforms.
In a few key ways, the opportunity in digital live video today is similar to what we saw in text 18 months ago. Today there are only a few players focused on creating high quality content for digital live platforms, and among those who are active, there is no clear leader among Indonesian millennials. Crucially, those who are active are simply moving TV formats online, instead of creating content formats tailored for the new platforms.
Audiences worldwide are embracing live broadcasts online. Since Facebook launched their live effort in May, the number of active users on their live platform quadrupled. Although Instagram only launched their livestreaming feature, Instagram Stories, in August, as of September the platform had over 100 million daily active users.
We see this as evidence that the ongoing transition in the viewing behavior of Indonesian millennials from analog to digital will only accelerate. Digital video will be one of the most valuable media formats in Indonesia and live will play a key role in making this a reality.
Watch this space.
(brl/red)
