KUALA LUMPUR: Star Media Group Bhd’s two-month-old video on demand service Dimsum is partnering with PepsiCo’s sole bottler in Malaysia, Etika Sdn Bhd, to offer 60 days free access to TV shows and movies during the Chinese New Year season.
Riding on the Chinese New Year festive mood, the free access codes are disseminated through 400,000 sets of limited edition angpow packets to customers who purchase a carton of 330ml Pepsi, 7UP or Revive Isotonic. The access code can be used on Dimsum’s website and mobile app.
“We know Chinese New Year is very meaningful and we want to treat our subscribers with something special. We believe entertainment is a must-have element during the festivities,” said Dimsum chief marketing officer Lam Swee Kim during its press announcement yesterday.
Lam added that it has been a culture for Malaysians to hand out angpow packets along with packaged drinks during reunions with family and friends.
Launched in November last year, Dimsum is Malaysia’s first home-grown online streaming platform that offers exclusively Asian content, with shows from China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
In the Malay online content segment, “there is TonTon from Media Prima and there is Iflix, which is more English-centric. We saw a gap for Asian content and went for it,” Lam said.
“If you look at the target market, we all fit nicely, each of us has our own segment,” Lam said to The Edge Financial Daily.
Some shows in Dimsum’s offering include movies by Stephen Chow and Jacky Chan such as God of Gamblers 2, From Beijing With Love and Ninth Happiness. Each subscription allows up to five concurrent users across multiple devices with a parental control feature and multilanguage subtitles.
With this inaugural partnership, Dimsum is also looking to work with other companies this year.
“We will continue this courtship with Etika and we hope to be lifelong partners,” said Lam.
Etika, formerly known as Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd, is the bottler for PepsiCo in Malaysia and it is also the distributor of global beverage brands such as Tropicana, 7UP and Mountain Dew.