Music has become a primary need for most people in any part of the world. Those people are willing to pay a good price to be able to enjoy music anywhere they could through their mobile devices. In Indonesia, the music streaming applications scene is quite full of global players. One of the biggest ones, and recently just celebrated its 5th year anniversary is JOOX.
In 2017, JOOX launched its LIVE feature by bringing artists and fans closer together with free live performances from both local and international artists. In the same year, they also launched a karaoke feature, enabling users to sing, listen, and comment on the songs they like. There are more than 100 million songs have sung on JOOX, which translates to 20 songs a minute. Seeing quite significant growth of its Karaoke user, JOOX decided to launch a new Karaoke feature, Quick Sing, making it easier for the user to sing a song and share it with people.
Peter May, Head of JOOX Indonesia, said, “In the past five years, we have also seen the rapid development of the Indonesian music industry. Every year, the number of new musicians increases, bringing new creation and inspiration across all music genres. Music streaming platforms like JOOX have helped people to get access to any music and gained awareness of different genres in Indonesia. This has helped contribute to the surge of local pride for Indonesian music.”
JOOX’s business growth
The increasing needs for music streaming platform services have driven JOOX to continue innovating and developing the product. More than just a music streaming platform, JOOX is a social entertainment platform that provides more than 30 million song collections with a wide selection of music genres that can be listened through other interactive features to meet the entertainment needs of the Indonesian people anytime and anywhere.
The Tencent backed music streaming platform has been available in eight countries, including Indonesia, Hongkong, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Macau, South Africa. Peter also mentioned that before entering a market, his team will do thorough research and survey on the market situation. The market demand is the basic consideration for JOOX to start its operation. Now, JOOX is always one of the top industry players in the markets it operates in. He claims JOOX as the most downloaded music streaming app, according to App Annie, both on Apple App Store and Google Play Store (across all markets with its footprint) for three consecutive years.
“Our main focus is providing the best services and meeting the diverse needs of our customers where we currently operate, but we are always looking to grow whether it is in existing markets or in potential new markets,” Peter added.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now adjusting their lifestyle to carry out various activities from their homes virtually, this includes how they enjoy entertainment contents.
Without sharing any detailed numbers on its user growth, JOOX’s team said their users usually listen to music to accompany them doing anything, from commuting, working, studying, and relaxing. Some experts also said that music could be a platform to embrace and express people’s current feelings, happiness, or sadness. Therefore, the Karaoke and Live Streaming feature become the second and third most used feature of JOOX.
“All of these features and excitement are part of our commitment to continuously strive to provide relevant entertainment content for users in Indonesia while supporting the country’s music and creative industry ecosystem,” Peter said.
As the JOOX’s Indonesia Head continues mentioning that music has been a part of many people’s lives, his team also see that podcast is gaining more mainstream appeal in the global industry. JOOX, with its current technology and features, is to support the growth of podcasts in the region.
With the presence of developers only in China’s headquarter, JOOX still keeping up with the technological trend in the region by using AI technology in its platform. The AI machine learning technology implemented in JOOX is said to have a better understanding of user’s habits, behavior, and preferences when they listen to music. From there, JOOX can take the next step by providing users with a customized music streaming experience through additional features like personalized playlist recommendations and in-app notifications.
Aside from geographical expansion and feature updates, the use of machine learning technology is also important for both users and musicians. For the users, it makes it easier for the user to find the songs that are suited to their tastes and preferences, while for the musicians, it helps them gain exposure to their songs to a wider scope of audience.
Continue strives for collaboration
While the subscription is an important factor in its growth, JOOX has a diversity of revenue streams. On B2C, they have different unique features, e.g. K-Plus, Coin Redemption (social/fan economy model). Users can use their coins to share gifts during live broadcasts, support their favorite karaoke song, or purchase airtime, merchandise, shopping vouchers, and even VIP access.
In terms of B2B, JOOX provides a platform for marketers and advertisers to reach and engage with their target audience via music and entertainment.
JOOX has been collaborating with 3rd parties, agencies, and brands to bring consumers and advertisers together on its platform. The partnerships offer exposure based on the click-through rate and app response rate on JOOX. Some of their previous partners like Coca-Cola, P&G, Unilever, and leading regional brands such as eCommerce Shopee and Southeast Asian super app Grab have leveraged JOOX’s advertising solutions in the region.
In addition to music streaming services, JOOX also brings in a lot of video entertainment content, from live broadcasts of regional music events such as the three major K-Pop award ceremonies in Korea to Korean music programs like M countdown, among others.
“Apart from brands and advertisers, we also position ourselves as a digital entertainment provider as we collaborate closely with and have a strong relationship with music labels across the regions,” Peter said.
