Joint efforts

In addition to introducing domestic series to overseas markets, more Chinese platforms and companies are producing local content by working with teams in Southeast Asia.

For example, WeTV has produced the Thai campus romance Love Mechanics, the melodrama The Wife, as well as the second season of the Indonesian hit My Lecture, My Husband. The Layangan Putus series in Indonesia, which tells the story of a couple enjoying a harmonious and loving relationship, has garnered hundreds of millions of views.

Explaining the idea to make original content starring local celebrities and cast members, Wang said: "We try to resonate with local communities. When people use our app to access original local material, they can also choose Chinese content that we provide."

For Century UU, a distributor and producer based in Tianjin, producing dramas with a Thai team to target audiences in China and Thailand is a good opportunity to meet future demand.

Century UU bought the copyrights for three popular South Korean series and produced them in Thailand with local teams. The series, which have aired in China and Thailand in the past two years, have received good reviews.

Li Fude, the founder of Century UU, said, "It's very convenient and easy to integrate all the resources we need to produce such originals, and it's not as expensive as shooting them in China."

When the company was established in 2012, it mainly introduced Thai TV dramas to China and distributed other Chinese series overseas. After years of working with its partners in Thailand, it has found new opportunities to cooperate with partners overseas in jointly producing original material.

Li said, "We make tailored content that takes into account the tastes of audiences from different nations."

For instance, his team added many elements related to Thai food to a romance series.