Kaskus Expands Video Streaming Service, Announces the Presence of "Kaskus TV"

Kaskus inaugurate the service video streaming "Kaskus TV" with its approach to programs and short format videos around interests, hobbies and lifestyles is in line with the company's DNA. In filling out the content, Kaskus collaborates with hobbyists, communities, and content partners.

"Kaskus TV presents content that has been curated and specific to interests and hobbies, according to the main focus of Kaskus. At this early stage, we present more than 45 program catalogs with a total duration of more than 200 hours," said Kaskus CEO Edi Taslim, Thursday. (27/9).

Kaskus also co-produces tailor-made original content, such as "Ber Musik", a web series about music and hobbies hosted by former Rolling Stone Indonesia Editor-in-Chief Adib Hidayat. Not only that, together with their production house, they exclusively present several short film series.

In filling out the content, TV in collaboration with a number of partners, such as Narasi.TV, Opini.id, SuperMusic, SuperAdventure, Indonesia Kaya, DailySocial, and Kumparan.

This service also provides video content about unique interests and hobbies, collaborating with hobby activists and communities such as Kaskus Traveler, Kaskus Table Tennis Club, Kaskus Motovlogger, SJCam, IndoExoticPets, and many more.

"Kaskus TV is related to the Kaskus discussion platform, so below the video there is a thread to discuss with fellow Kaskuser because the main point of Kaskus is the discussion forum."

To fill in the content on Kaskus TV, there will be a curation process carried out by the Kaskus team. So not just any content that can be consumed in it. This step is taken to monitor the quality of the content while keeping it in line with Kaskus DNA.

"Anyone can watch it for free but we are curating the content to fill in. The process can be from us asking for cooperation with content creators, then discussing what kind of license model is, and how to commercialize it. Who wants to pay for it, then how is the profit-sharing system. "

In order to support content creators, Kaskus has prepared complete mini studio facilities along with equipment and operators. This studio is located in the Kaskus office and is used for free.

"The Kaskus TV video platform and studio and auditorium facilities were built to support various online and offline community activities at Kaskus. Also to appreciate Kaskuser's work that will be produced and developed into web series, both video formats and audio podcasts."

Additional business income

Edi continued that Kaskus TV was a business plan that Kaskus had prepared long ago. The company allocated a number of investments to use a dedicated video platform that is also used by the HBO cable TV network. However, he refused to mention the value of this investment.

The video platform is used to support Kaskus control over content so that it is not easily pirated, as well as to support the exclusivity of each content produced because it does not exist on other streaming platforms.

"In Indonesia, most of the media do not use their own video platform, they end up using a free platform so that the sacrifice of their monetization strategy is limited. This investment that we spend can be commensurate with the number of viewers we can print in the future."

Later this platform will be a maneuver for additional revenue from advertising for the Kaskus business. There is something taken from the license lease, profit sharing revenue, or other. The percentage for profit sharing varies, there are 50-50, some even 70-30.

At this early stage, this strategy has not become the focus of Kaskus. It wants to ensure organic growth for the number of viewers.

"This video has more value than written or image content, after all, it is also difficult tocopy paste. We don't want to be all about revenue. Kaskus TV will be directed to pamper the community so that there is a new forum."

Since two weeks of being publicly released, one of Kaskus TV's programs, namely Music, has been watched by 250 thousand people. This figure is quite fantastic for a video streaming platform that is only 1,5 months old.

Edi targets that by the end of the year it is expected to reach 1 million unique views.

"We are quite confident with this new achievement. This means that Kaskus users can get a fairly decent and varied spectacle according to their hobbies and interests," concluded Edi.

To support Kaskus TV, there are additional innovations in the form of audio podcasts that can be used to interact with the community. Audio podcasts It is planned to be inaugurated in October 2018.