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Rich millennial women – the biggest consumers of pirated content in Singapore and Hong Kong

The most common users of streaming pirated content websites in Singapore and Hong Kong are affluent young women, who are also the biggest users of legal streaming services such as Netflix, internet user behaviour data scraped by artificial intelligence firm Sqreem has found.

Singapore's top torrent site Eastern Asian media including anime, manga and music site Nyaa.

Singapore’s top torrent site is anime, manga and music portal Nyaa

Streaming video on-demand sites such as Netflix, Iflix and Hooq provide an alternative to piracy but the same consumers will turn to illegal options if the SVOD brands do not to deliver the content they’re looking for at the right time, the research suggests.

The typical pirated content consumer in Hong Kong is a young mother, while in Singapore they tend to be working single women. Streaming is more prevalent in Hong Kong, downloading content more of a thing in Singapore.

“Five years ago, torrent sites were dangerous places. There were a lot of viruses, and were associated with hardcore porn addicts and hardcore gamers,” Rene Raiss the founder of Sqreem told Mumbrella.

“Now it’s gone mainstream to the point where you see your average 28 year-old fashionista with a torrent app on her Android phone, and switching between Netflix and whatever she can get on the dark web.”

The analysis, which takes into account search interest, social media use, site traffic, app usage, and click frequencies in both territories, also shows that Netflix a way to go to assert itself in markets where local platforms for watching content online are preferred.

In Singapore, Mediacorp’s Toggle is by some margin the most popular SVOD platform. The Netflix app is fourth. Iflix, which hasn’t launched in Singapore and never will according to co-founder Mark Britt, is also fairly well used.

Source: Sqreem; most popular cable and video on demand sites

Top cable TV and video on-demand platforms in Singapore. Source: Sqreem (click to enlarge)

In Hong Kong, the market’s leading pay-TV provider, TVB Pay Vision is the preferred choice in the list of cable TV and SVOD players, then iCable and Now TV. Iflix, which hasn’t officially launched in Hong Kong either, is next, ahead of Netflix’s app.

Cable TV websites and video on-demand source: Sqreem

Top cable TV and video on-demand sites in Hong Kong. Source: Sqreem (click to enlarge)

The preferred torrent sites among Hongkongers are 1337x, BitSnoop and Rarbg.

The most popular torrent sites and search engines in Hong Kong

The most popular torrent sites and search engines in Hong Kong. Source: Sqreem

In Singapore, Nyaa, YTS and 7Torrents are the sites of choice for illegally downloading and streaming content.

The most popular torrent sites and search engines in Singapore (click to enlarge)

The most popular torrent sites and search engines in Singapore. Source: Sqreem

The data also revealed the app preferences of Hongkongers and Singaporeans, with gay hookup service Grindr the most popular app overall across both markets.

Pokemon Go is the most popular app in Hong Kong, followed by content storing service Pocket, Grinder, cab-hailing app Uber and Facebook Messenger.

Top apps in Hong Kong

Top apps in Hong Kong. Source: Sqreem

Media player app Kodi is the preferred app in Singapore, followed by dating/meet-up apps Skout and MeetMe.

Top apps in Singapore

Top apps in Singapore. Source: Sqreem

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