Foxconn Ventures, Hony, and Temasek are paying the equivalent of US$110 million to take ownership of 18 percent of the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT, which also owns mobile video service VuClip and music streaming service Moov. PCCW Media – a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based telco PCCW – will remain as controlling shareholder.

The company said that the investment will be used to fund original content production and enhance its technology offering.

PCCW OTT also said it would “leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience.” Patent holders will often seek to license their patented technologies to other companies in order to generate additional revenue, or to encourage their wider adoption in the industry. Sometimes, patent holders will litigate to try to compel others to take a license. As such, patents can give their owners an edge over competitors. However, PCCW told Tech in Asia that it has no intention to license its patents to third parties at the moment. It also said it would not comment on the possibility of litigation regarding any alleged infringements of its patents.

The strategic investment comes less than a week after Iflix – one of Viu’s key competitors in the region – announced that it had raised US$133 million in funding to boost production of locally oriented, original content.

Ranking data from analytics firm App Annie indicates that Iflix is the dominant streaming app in several of Asia-Pacific’s major emerging markets. Netflix is playing catch-up, but has made growth in the region a strategic priority. Viu is another significant player, achieving top 10 spots in entertainment app rankings in the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand across both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Viu had over 12 million monthly active users as of June this year. It is available in 15 markets across Asia and the Middle East.