Product subscription prices across southeast Asia are pushing past the roof and Asian consumers, Filipinos included, increasingly turn to illegal piracy sites for relief.
A study by Bango.net Ltd., which develops, markets and sells digital products that help merchants grow, has concluded that 59 percent of respondents in the region cannot afford the price of a subscription and as result 44 percent of their number now access piracy sites instead. Bango’s study incorporates data from over 6,000 consumers paying for subscription services across India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
It found that 29 percent of consumers have five or more subscriptions.
In regions such as Thailand, 63 percent of consumers say they can no longer afford the subscriptions they want, a figure that rises as high as 79 percent in Malaysia.To better keep track of costs, subscribers are looking to manage all of their current subscriptions, such as streaming, gaming, fitness and more in one single platform, app, or monthly bill.
The vast majority, or 91 percent, believe that having this single platform would help them to better manage their monthly household expenses.
“With escalating household expenses and a surge of new entrants in the streaming market, content providers need to ensure they offer subscribers value for money. If they don’t, our data indicates that many consumers will resort to piracy instead,” Anil Malhotra, co-founder of Bango, said.
While many subscribers struggle to afford all the content they want, Bango’s research also highlights a growing frustration managing several different subscription services.
Fifty-nine percent are annoyed they cannot manage all their subscriptions in one place while a quarter struggle to renew contracts across their various accounts.
“Telcos in the region have a major role to play, by helping subscribers make sense of their subscription commitments. By offering these services through a super bundling subscriptions hub, delivered through existing telco billing relationships, telcos and their content partners can take the wind out of the sails of this growing trend towards piracy,” Malhotra said.
A centralized hub for subscription services would enable simpler, more flexible management that ultimately works to disincentivize piracy. The demand for this type of consolidation is clear across Southeast Asia and India, some 93 percent of consumers want one place to manage subscriptions.
“The Bango digital vending machine makes it simple for telcos to aggregate and bundle subscriptions into a single user-friendly experience. Super bundling subscriptions all in one place boosts customer satisfaction, making it simple for content providers and telcos to tap into this opportunity,” Malhotra said.
