MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The current pandemic has shown the importance of online video, music, and games in providing distraction, information, and entertainment to people who have to stay at home, prompting Globe Telecom to work on creating better and more relevant content that would suit the different needs of its customers.
Speaking at the Asia Video Industry Association’s (AVIA) Over The Top Virtual Summit, Nikko Acosta, Globe SVP for Content Business and Product Management, stressed that the future in content services, as in its past, still lies in the satisfaction of the needs of the consumers.
“The purpose of Globe is really to treat other people right and that has been our consistent foundation ever since. That led us to understand that to deliver great content regardless of whether it is video, music, games, or eCommerce, it has to be based on what the consumers want and appreciate. In today’s reality, more activities are coming from the home so online streaming becomes an integration point between work and life, in more ways today than before,” he said.
Globe is using a two-pronged approach in providing content to its consumers. First is the partnership with local, regional, and global brands that have the acumen and have gained success in their respective fields. This allows Globe to bring the right service and product through the company’s marketing and distribution channels. Globe started to change how Filipinos consume content by introducing Spotify in 2014, followed by Facebook, Netflix, NBA, iflix, Disney, Viu, TikTok, among other partners.
Learning from the best also drove Globe to work on its own materials, thus, the future of its video platform portfolio heavily includes content creation. “The situation today with the global pandemic showed the importance of content creation in terms of addressing the more specific needs of the families and individuals that may not be available outside of our local portfolio. That is why content creation is coming in more in terms of video and music. We need to find new ways to create compelling content that engages with the audiences. We are affirming that content creation is an area that we want to pursue strategically, moving forward,” said Acosta.
He added that Globe will continue to work with and learn from its partners that have delivered successfully on content creation. Globe’s original materials are now being used globally using the distribution channels of its partners.
During the community quarantine, there has been a large increase in the use of wireless devices whether for recreation or information. Acosta said that for non-video, games serve as a big pillar that has driven utilization while online education and e-commerce has taken a lot of the essential utilization.
Aside from content creation and distribution, Globe is working closely with AVIA in its fight against piracy or copyright infringement of original materials. Through its #PlayItRight campaign, Globe is educating the public about the need to protect the livelihood of the people involved in the creative, video, and music industries as well as threats posed by malware and other malicious threats contained in illegally-obtained content.
