Vivamax boss chalks up subscriber growth to consistency

Vincent del Rosario

More than the content per se, it’s the consistency with which Vivamax produced them that helped the digital streaming platform grow its number of subscribers from 600,000 in its first year in 2021 to 7 million this year.

“Viewers are always looking for something new. You should have consistency. If you don’t have that, you risk losing subscribers,” Viva Communications president and chief operating officer Vincent del Rosario said in an interview.

“So now, we put out one new title a week, sometimes even two,” added the executive, who was named one of the “rising stars” of the business world at The Business Manual’s recent “Growth Con PH” event. “And it’s challenging because we needed to put out original content from scratch.”

More to watch

Vivamax’s launch catalog was composed of 500 titles, which included local films, Tagalized Hollywood and South Korean hits and other Asian movies. Now, it has doubled with 408 original titles, which are accessible in more than 100 countries and territories, including Asia, North America, Europe, Oceania and South America.

“We hit our stride when it became clear that our content is for Filipinos,” Del Rosario said.

While the platform has become associated with sexy and adult-themed content, Del Rosario pointed out that they only constitute less than 10 percent of the catalog.

‘Pandemic baby’

“Vivamax” was a “pandemic baby.” While launching a streaming platform was something Viva was already exploring at the time, the cinemas shut down.

“We had a number of finished movies and we weren’t sure what to do with them, because we didn’t know when the cinemas would reopen so we created a team. We have a library, so let’s put it there—without any expectations—so people would have a reason to subscribe,” Del Rosario said.

“We saw streaming as an interesting addition to the existing outlets for films,” added Del Rosario, who oversees Viva’s operations for film, television, online media, music production and publishing and live shows. “We worked double time to set it up and we went into full operations in February 2021. From there, it just grew and grew.”

But despite having Vivamax, Viva remains open to collaborations with other production outfits and other streaming services.

“We’re happy licensing our titles to other streaming services because we look at ourselves as a content provider. The beauty is that we get to interact with other producers,” Del Rosario said.