Naspers affiliate Tencent is buying certain assets of iFlix, a struggling streaming platform with about 25 million users focused in South and Southeast Asia.

“This is in line with our strategy to expand our international streaming platform, WeTV, across Southeast Asia and provide users with international, local and original high-quality content in a wide range of genres and languages,” Tencent said in an e-mailed statement.

This is in line with our strategy to expand our international streaming platform, WeTV, across Southeast Asia…

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a plunge in advertising, wreaking havoc on the media industry and iFlix.

WeTV

Tencent will initially run iFlix as an independent brand, but the goal is to merge it with its own WeTV streaming platform, which targets users outside of China, the person said.

Consolidating ownership of streaming platforms may help Tencent contain the cost of content, which has squeezed margins in the business.