Yahoo partners with Viddsee to promote Asia-made short films

Viddsee aggregates short films from across Asia, including work from independent filmakers as well as some branded content. Launched last year, the company grew out of the co-founders' love of film and their experience working in the online video space, according to co-founder Derek Tan.

"Viddsee is creating a platform that focuses on rich storytelling and driving that back to engage with audience," he said. "We have done that with our platform since we launched last year."

The site has amassed more than 100,000 users since its launch, but Yahoo's involvement provides the opportunity to extend the films to a larger audience base. 

"In time to come, we are using this multi-content, multi-platform approach to engage audience and hopefully help brands target audience with stories," Tan said.  

Yahoo will showcase Viddsee's content on its own 'Asian Short Film' channels for Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.

As for Viddsee's own site, Tan said he and co-founder Ho Jia Jian are focused on investing to build their audience through curation, targeting a sweet spot for content that is more sophisticated then the amusing clips and parody videos found on YouTube but still falls short of cinema distribution or a television venue. The company will explore monetisation options later on, he said.

Asked to discuss the platform's potential for brands, Tan cited a film that Viddsee's editors highlighted as a "buzz" item on Wednesday. Commissioned by Singapore's Community Chest, the story of a son's strained relationship with this father has accrued more then 12,000 shares thus far.