Singapore – Despite a decrease in piracy on pirate TV boxes, pirate apps and streaming or torrent websites, the survey shows an increase in the incidence of piracy across the region on social media and messaging platforms, according to a new survey from Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), conducted alongside YouGov.
The survey shows an increase in the incidence of piracy across the region, climbing from 52% last year to 59% this year. Moreover, it showed that particularly concerning are the increases in the Philippines (12% yoy) and Vietnam (13% yoy), with both countries also now having the region’s highest incidences of piracy amongst their populations, at 70% and 71% respectively.
The dominance of social media and messaging platforms as the conduit to piracy not only remains, but has grown more severe, increasing by 14% across the region. Meanwhile, only 13% of consumers in the region now access pirated content through websites, and 11% by pirate TV boxes – both down from last year.
Moreover, awareness of the negative consequences of piracy (89%) remains extremely high across the region, with consumers being most aware of criminals profiting from pirate services, the risks of malware and the damage piracy causes to local industry being most prominent.
Lastly, the impact of judicial or administrative orders requiring ISPs to block access to pirate sites is clear, with Indonesian (59%), Vietnamese (54%), Malaysian (42%) and Singaporean (28%) consumers saying they have either stopped entirely or rarely access pirate sites as a direct result of sites being blocked.
Matt Cheetham, general manager of CAP, noted, “We are greatly encouraged by the continuing downward trend of consumers accessing pirate content from illegal websites, which reflects the work done over many years in the region by industry and governments. However, it is clear that social media and messaging platforms must do more to prevent their services being used to find and access pirate content.”
