The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2015–2020
Hooq was Singtel's $420M Netflix rival in Asia — liquidated 5 years later, 240 jobs gone
A Singtel-Sony-Warner JV valued at $420M in 2015 tried to beat Netflix in Asia. It filed for liquidation in 2020 — 240 staff laid off.
Hooq · Singtel · Sony Pictures · Warner Bros. · Coupang · 2020-03-27
What happened
Hooq was founded in Singapore on 30 January 2015 as a joint venture between telecom giant Singtel (65%), Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. It was valued at $420 million at launch and aimed to capture the Asian streaming market before Netflix arrived in force. It rolled out progressively in the Philippines, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Singapore during 2015–2016, offering a mix of Hollywood, Asian, and original content.
Despite early promise — it won 'Best Mobile App' at the 2016 GSMA Global Mobile Awards — Hooq was loss-making from the start. Netflix's aggressive global expansion into Asia squeezed its subscriber growth. By March 2020, Singtel's indirect control had risen to 76.5% as the other shareholders declined to inject more capital.
On 27 March 2020, Hooq filed for liquidation, blaming 'significant structural changes' in the OTT video market. All 240 global staff were laid off. On 30 April 2020, the service shut down. In July 2020, South Korean e-commerce company Coupang acquired Hooq's software assets and used them to build Coupang Play.
Why it happened
- Hooq entered a market that Netflix was simultaneously targeting with massive content investment — a well-funded JV could not outspend the global leader.
- The streaming business is a scale game: Hooq operated across five diverse markets with local licensing costs for each, while Netflix spread its content budget globally.
- Singtel and the Hollywood studios valued Hooq for distribution, not for building a sustainable standalone business — when the losses mounted, nobody wanted to fund a turnaround.
- A joint venture with three parents is a company with no single owner willing to make the long-term investment needed to compete against Netflix.
The lesson
A regional streaming service cannot outspend Netflix on content. Without a captive telco base or exclusive rights, a JV with three parents is a slow liquidation.
Aftermath
Hooq shut down on 30 April 2020. Coupang acquired its software assets in July 2020, which became the foundation of Coupang Play, a South Korean OTT service launched later that year. In early 2024, Hedley Digital (SEO Korea) acquired Hooq's digital assets and relaunched it as an OTT meta-search platform. The collapse left Southeast Asia with one fewer homegrown streaming competitor and reinforced Netflix's dominance in the region.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
oBike flooded Singapore with bikes, then quit overnight when licensing arrived
Partipost owed 200+ creators S$171K across Southeast Asia — and stopped paying
Fntastic hyped The Day Before into Steam's most wishlisted game — it collapsed in 4 days
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.