Students from Ha Noi Industrial College stream online videos. Vietnamese are connected 15.5 hours a week via the top four devices: smartphones, laptops, desktops and smart TV. - VNA/VNS Photo Minh Tu

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Nine out of 10 digital consumers in Viet Nam watch online videos weekly as the burgeoning popularity of online video in Southeast Asia is re-shaping the region's media landscape, according to a report from the South Asia Cross-Platform from Nielsen, a global information and insights company.

Viewing online video content is a common pastime for digital consumers in Southeast Asia and the majority watch online videos at least every week.

Viewing in the region is the highest in Viet Nam, with 91 per cent watching weekly, while Singapore, which has the region's highest internet penetration, recorded the least amount of online video consumption with 56 per cent.

The top five online video sources of the Vietnamese are YouTube, 24h, nhaccuatui, VnExpress, and Dantri. Online viewing has strong peaks during lunch and evening hours.

The report also shows that Vietnamese are connected 15.5 hours a week, using the top four devices, smartphones, laptops, desktops, and smart TV.

"Smartphone ownership in the country has increased more than sevenfold from 11 per cent to 82 per cent," says the report.

In addition, internet access via smartphones and laptops has quadrupled and doubled, respectively, in three years.

Along with increasing connected-device ownership and time spent online, consumers' media consumption habits are shifting; four out of five Vietnamese engage with three screens simultaneously.

Southeast Asia

As ownership of connected devices surges across the region, consumers are taking the driving seat when it comes to their consumption of media, choosing when, where and how they access content, according to the report.

The report shows more than six in 10 digital consumers in Southeast Asia report watching TV content and movies via online sources such as video-on-demand, with the penetration of internet TV highest in Thailand (76 per cent) and the Philippines (71 per cent). And YouTube is also increasingly acknowledged as a ‘TV channel' or platform.

The Nielsen South Asia Cross-Platform Report series, sponsored by Videology, provides an in-depth look at the changing media landscape in some of the most dynamic markets in rising Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Viet Nam and India.

In all markets, a sample of 1,000 frequent online users aged 16 and above was captured using an online survey methodology. Responses were collected in April and May. The trending analysis compares 2014 with 2011. — VNS