Tubi, a free, ad-supported streaming video service, said that it now has 25 million monthly active users and that it saw a big jump in engagement during 2019.
The new user base numbers for Tubi are up from the 20 million monthly active users the company announced in July 2019. Tubi also said that in December, total viewing time rose to more than 163 million hours watched – a year over year increase of 160%.
A lot of Tubi’s engagement growth is coming from international markets. The company said year over year in Canada and Australia, there was a 357% increase in total viewing time. In 2020, Tubi will launch in additional territories including Mexico and the U.K. The company recently announced a partnership with TV Azteca in Mexico to provide Spanish language content. Tubi also announced a global deal TV manufacturer Hisense to include Tubi as part of their Vidaa platform.
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Tubi didn’t provide any insights into the company’s advertising and other revenue performance but it did say it will ramp up content spending in 2020. The company now expects content spending this year to exceed nine figures.
“Our growth over the last year is a clear testament to the success of our focused strategy in a now-cluttered marketplace,” said Farhad Massoudi, CEO of Tubi, in a statement. “We’re excited people globally have embraced Tubi as a complement to subscription video and aim to deliver an even larger library of premium content in 2020.”
As Tubi’s usage and content lineup grows, so too does the company itself. In 2019, Tubi said it increased its headcount to more 229 full-time employees, an increase of 78% versus 2018. The company said it will “rapidly add more employees in the coming year as Tubi continues its expansion both domestically and internationally.”