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Smooth playback for sports, film, and drama fans
Vidio stays ahead of the online over-the-top streaming competition in Indonesia by delivering high-quality, uninterrupted programming to millions of viewers all over the country, including a fast-growing audience of sports fans, especially football fans. To deliver a smooth, sharp picture — even during periods of high demand — Vidio uses Akamai’s content delivery network (CDN) to store online video and deliver it to multiple devices and formats, from smartphones to smart TVs.
Delivering an uninterrupted, high-quality streaming experience
Launched in 2014, Vidio is now one of the largest video streaming platforms in Indonesia, with more than 60 million monthly active users attracted by free-to-air and subscription channels that broadcast live streaming, films, TV shows, and a selection of the top sporting events in the world.
The platform has seen more than 150% growth and the Vidio app has been downloaded more than five million times. During the Tokyo Olympics the app reached the number one spot on Apple’s App Store in Indonesia across all categories.
This growth in app and mobile viewing highlights an important challenge for Vidio. Its viewers expect an outstanding streaming experience on any device, from a smartphone to a 4K smart TV. This means crystal clear resolution and no buffering whether they’re watching via Wi-Fi or a Telco service when they’re on the move.
Adding even more complexity, Vidio’s streaming infrastructure must be capable of handling massive spikes in demand around popular shows and live sporting events. During the Tokyo Olympics, the platform peaked at more than 400,000 concurrent users. But even this number was surpassed when Indonesia reached the finals of the 2020 Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup championship that took place from December 2021 through January 2022. Demand at the height of the tournament topped 3.5 terabits (serving 1.77 million concurrent watchers) and with further optimization served 2.067 million concurrent fans (at 3.02 terabits per second).
Tommy Sullivan, CTO at Vidio, says, “We have millions of items of professionally produced content. Delivering them quickly, efficiently, and reliably is our biggest challenge. Consumers aren’t interested in the reasons why their service is less than perfect. They just expect an immersive and uninterrupted video streaming experience every time, especially during big sports events where the national team is competing, such as the AFF Suzuki Cup in 2021–22.”
In a highly competitive marketplace, where some of the biggest names in media are entering Indonesia, Vidio turned to Akamai to ensure the best possible video quality. By improving the audience experience, they also hope to reduce churn, increase repeat viewers, and ultimately achieve higher revenues based on subscriptions and advertising.
Sports fans are fanatical. That’s why Akamai is central to the quality of our video streams.
Tommy Sullivan, CTO, Vidio
High-quality playback on any device or network
Sullivan reiterates the importance of the viewer experience. “Smooth playback is everything, whether you’re sitting in front of an ultra-high-definition smart TV or holding a smartphone. Thanks to Akamai’s content delivery network technology, including Adaptive Media Delivery (AMD), we can deliver high-resolution, uninterrupted content to a fast-growing online audience whether it’s their first time viewing or their fifth.”
Vidio also protects its systems using App & API Protector, which offers protection against denial of service and web application attacks. This reduces risks of downtime, data theft, and website defacement.
In addition, Vidio has introduced Cloud Wrapper, which enables it to minimize the calls to its origin servers and better manage the costs associated with this process. “For most artifacts, only a single call is to the origin servers, and most of the traffic is served from the Cloud Wrapper cache. This reduces data transfer costs, as well as reducing the strain on our wider infrastructure. In one instance during a routing incident Akamai Cloud Wrapper saved us $40,000,” says Sullivan.
Akamai’s CDN presence in Indonesia also means that the majority of Vidio programming is streamed within the country. Not relying on external networks that bounce content around an international network before returning to Indonesian viewers reduces exposure to software and infrastructure issues, such as damage to cables, and helps ensure a better experience for viewers.
Growing demand for live sports content
Akamai helps enable Vidio deliver an outstanding viewing experience even during periods of enormous growth and spikes in demand that coincide with major sporting events. “We have the largest content library of local and global sports competitions in the local market, including the Spanish and Italian soccer leagues, the European Champions League, the ATP Tour, BWF, F1, and the NBA,” says Sullivan.
“Sports fans are fanatical. As well as the national team, Indonesia hosts Liga 1, the biggest soccer league in the region,” says Sullivan. “Even a short interruption or lower resolution will create a negative impression of the platform. Fans are not shy about sharing a bad experience on social media, which could seriously damage our reputation. That’s why Akamai is central to the quality of our video streams, which in turn helps us to stand out from the competition.”
We have complete confidence that we can maintain our market-leading position and continue to attract investment thanks to Akamai.
Tommy Sullivan, CTO, Vidio
Competing today and in the future
Giving viewers the best possible experience is critical for Vidio to continue growing its market share and reduce churn as new video streaming services enter the Indonesian market. “We’ve seen some big names launch in the past 12 months or so,” says Sullivan. “But we have complete confidence that we can maintain our market-leading position and continue to attract investment thanks to Akamai.”
Akamai’s commitment to customer success gave Sullivan confidence when a spike in demand during the AFF tournament required Vidio to serve 3.5 terabits of data per second. “We always knew that we’d hit that threshold at some stage. But we trust Akamai to manage that level of demand. I have the comfort of knowing they are always there to support our audience, revenue, and investment growth on a huge scale.”
He also stresses the role of the Akamai Plus Service and Support package, which includes expert assistance in the deployment and integration of Akamai solutions, as well as ongoing support and maintenance. “I have a really great relationship with the Akamai team. I like the way they reach out to us proactively to help us get the best out of new releases and better value from the Akamai solutions.”
About Vidio
Founded in 2014, Vidio is Indonesia‘s #1 local over-the-top (OTT) streaming service with over 60 million average MAU and is ranked as the #1 OTT in Google Play Store’s entertainment category. Vidio is well known for its exclusive content in both Sports and Entertainment, including Liga 1, UCL, UEL, F1, and NBA. Recognized as the OTT with the most releases of local original series, Vidio also hosts the biggest content library with over 1 million VODs, 60 channels, 33 radios and covers a wide selection of genres: local, Korean, Bollywood, Asian, and Hollywood. Vidio is currently widely accessible in all connected platforms: mobile, web, Smart TV, and Set-top Boxes. Vidio is owned by PT Surya Citra Media Tbk and is part of the broader PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk media and technology group. https://www.vidio.com/
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world’s most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai’s security, compute, and delivery solutions at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on Twitter and LinkedIn.