Turner buys into Asian digital content network

Turner Asia Pacific has taken a minority stake in POPS Worldwide, a Vietnamese digital media and creator network.

The deal is designed to take Turner to new, younger online audiences and expand its work with POPS.

The two companies in April 2016 launched Turner’s Boomerang channel on POPS Kids’ non-linear platforms.

“With its unique proposition, POPS has shown to be very adept at attracting and engaging audiences with its local content and creator network, and this agreement allows Turner to venture into this growing side of the business,” commented Ricky Ow, president of Turner Asia Pacific.

POPS claims to garner more than two billion monthly online views, and has 32 million YouTube network subscribers across 1,210 managed channels.

The business launched in late 2011, and claims to have taken more than 40 billion views in total. Among the networks are POPS Music (3.3 million subscribers) and POPS Kids (1.4 million subs).

“We are excited to have Turner come on board,” said Esther Nguyen, founder and CEO of POPS Worldwide. “Using this investment, we can supercharge our ambitious vision to lead digital entertainment in Southeast Asia.”

She pointed to plans to expand the network onto more mobile and non-traditional platforms, invest “heavily” in content production and open new markets

“Over the past year, we have been working closely with Turner on their Kids content,” she added.

“Through this journey, we realised that we share the same vision of the future of entertainment.”

The pair is planning to branch out beyond children’s TV and launch initiatives in other genres.