KUALA LUMPUR: Media Prima Digital (MPD), the digital arm of Media Prima Bhd, expects advertising revenue stream to increase following a new collaboration with Grab, Southeast Asia’s premier ride-hailing firm.
Both firms had earlier today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to place over a thousand Grab In-Car Media Platform in Malaysia by year-end.
As of now, 250 Grab cars around Klang Valley has been equipped with the platform.
The first of its kind in the country, the collaboration will see MPD delivering various short-form content that are well-suited for in-transit viewing, whereby Grab passengers can enjoy content across four segments namely entertainment, lifestyle, sports and news.
“MPD is already attracting some 11 million viewers a month through our content and we believe that we will be able to increase viewership on the back of this collaboration with Grab,” said MPD chief executive officer Rafiq Razali.
“The way people consume information now can be from various interactive medium and Grab In-Car Media Platform is another way for us to reach to a wider audience and strengthen our position to become first digitally led company in Malaysia.”
MPD is the digital arm of the country's premier media conglomerate whose network include print, television networks, radio and outdoor advertising, to name a few.
MPD recorded stellar year-on-year growth for the first quarter (1Q) ended 31 March 2018.
Profits jumped over 100 per cent from RM190,000 in 1Q17 to RM3.4 million, while revenue was up by 98 per cent from RM9.9 million last year to RM19.7 million.
In terms of advertising, MPD had also managed to attract RM17.7 million in 1Q18, versus RM4.7 million recorded the year before.
Rafiq declined to comment on the total investment value for the collaboration but said that it is minimal for now, given the content MPD will be providing on the platform are all existing content.
He shared that there is a possibility for MPD to one day create content specifically for the platform, but it is very much dependent on the performance of the platform.
“Obviously this collaboration is over the long term, but how we move forward would be dependent on the first six months,” said Rafiq.
“Grab has the data gathering capabilities that we can utilise on the kind of content is preferred and hopefully through this, we can increase the number of our advertisers going forward.”
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