Toronto-based storytelling app Wattpad will work with iflix to develop several original productions in Indonesia.
Iflix has signed a content partnership to bring Wattpad stories to iflix users across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Over the next year, iflix and Wattpad will co-produce dozens of original movies based on Wattpad stories from Indonesia.
The deal gives iflix access to the more than six million original Indonesian story uploads on Wattpad. Using machine learning, Wattpad will identify stories and trends to develop as iflix original films, under the brand iflix Originals.
Projects from the partnership will join iflix’s slate of premium original content, adding a significant number of new movies available to iflix subscribers for free, significantly diversifying and expanding the company’s line-up of Originals.
Indonesia is one of the largest and most exciting markets in the world for both Wattpad and iflix.
Wattpad has a community of more than 6.5 million monthly users who spend more than 650 million minutes on the platform each month. The company has more than 65 million users globally, with more than 17 million in Southeast Asia.
With more than nine million users in Indonesia streaming an average of 40 million minutes daily, the country is iflix’s fastest growing and most dynamic market. The company recently announced an increased focus with new dedicated resources, leadership and investment in the creative ecosystem and economy in Indonesia with its partnership with Creative Economy of Indonesia (BEKRAF) and the National Film Body of Indonesia (BPI).
iflix chief content officer, Sean Carey commented: “Storytelling is the bedrock of all great entertainment. With Wattpad, we now have the opportunity to work with thousands of talented Indonesian writers to bring their stories to life for millions of iflix users in Indonesia, and broadly across our 30 markets worldwide. With traditional distribution and platform requirements no longer a constraint and deep data and analytics available to measure performance and engagement, this deal allows us to create exciting original productions from hugely popular, local stories.”
Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios added: “This deal represents the future of entertainment, where technology and data converge with new voices in storytelling to transform how great content gets made and distributed. Working with iflix, we can bring our millions of passionate users in Indonesia and Southeast Asia exactly what they want: local stories that they already love and can’t wait to see adapted for the screen.”
The deal follows a string of new partnerships and continued international entertainment expansion for Wattpad. The company has existing deals with US and international entertainment partners that include Germany’s Bavaria Fiction, eOne, Universal Cable Productions (a division of NBCUniversal), Sony Pictures Television, CW Seed, and others. In October, Light as a Feather, based on the Wattpad story of the same name, and produced by AwesomenessTV, Wattpad, and Grammnet, will stream on Hulu. On April 12, 2019, Wattpad’s feature film After, starring Josephine Langford, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jennifer Beals, Peter Gallagher, and Selma Blair, will hit theatres.
