Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Short-form video platform TikTok enjoyed a huge increase in viewership in the first six months of the year in Southeast Asia, contributing to a sudden halt to the overall growth of premium (SVOD) video, according to a new report. Data from AMPD and analysis from consultancy firm Media Partners Asia show that TikTok is increasingly a major driver of viewership growth on mobile and web platforms in the region, responsible for over 70% of growth in streaming minutes over the past two years. In the January-June period, TikTok captured 42% of video streaming minutes, a massive 20-percentage point increase over the first half of 2021 and a seven percentage point increase from the first half of last year. While overall engagement is growing, TikTok’s rise has cut into the dominance of YouTube (-4%) and time spent watching premium VOD (-2%) year-on-year, according to the firms’ Southeast Asia Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report. The overall SVOD market flattened dramatically, with the measured region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) adding only a net 7,000 new subscribers.