The Real World Thailand is on its way to Facebook Watch in 2019 along with Asia-Pacific game show Confetti. The ultimate mission is less about becoming the next uber-commissioner than about creating experiences & communities, says entertainment partnerships head, Saurabh Doshi.

A Thai reboot of MTV’s vintage reality series, The Real World, is headed for Facebook Watch in spring 2019, following an Asia-Pacific adaptation of interactive game show format, Confetti, slated for a year-end premiere. The new long-form shows – Facebook’s first commissions for Asia – are part of the global Facebook Watch rollout announced at the end of August.

Why Thailand, one of only three country versions Facebook has commissioned? The other two are Mexico and the U.S. An enthusiastic audience, for one. More than 51 million people in Thailand use Facebook every month. One of the top videos from this year – the cave rescue of a Thai football team – has 26 million views. At one point during the dramatic rescue, a Thai Navy Seals video had 700,000 concurrent views. “That’s what the platform stands for, bringing people together,” says Saurabh Doshi, Facebook’s Asia-Pacific head of entertainment partnerships.

Thailand also has the diversity and social complexity likely to make compelling content for young audiences. Who knew, for instance, that there are something like 18 ways to define gender identity? It’s the stuff The Real World relished in its early years... and perhaps plans to do again in the reboot, co-produced by MTV Studios and Bunim/Murray Productions.

The new shows are part of Facebook’s expanded entertainment focus in Asia, starting with Doshi’s appointment earlier this year.

Doshi says the region is one of Facebook’s fastest growing and most diverse, with the kinds of learnings that, for instance, drove the launch of the platform’s Marketplace and have shaped the global product. The Marketplace idea came from Indonesia, where “we saw people organically trading on the platform and exchanging stuff”. Many small and medium business ideas come from Thailand, where broadcasters are happily streaming content and building communities. “Across Asia there is so much learning. We’ve been talking about it for a long time... now the time is right,” he says.

Doshi talks about Facebook Watch as more than a video destination or a repository of video content – or, indeed, more than another mega-commissioner of premium shows or outlet for linear channels. Commissioned/funded content is actually a very small part of Watch, he says. “We are a social network, that’s our DNA,” he says. “Videos can be really passive... Our video strategy is about making the whole experience more meaningful, more interesting and engaging,” he adds.

While Facebook continues to test sports streaming, such as with LaLiga in India, Doshi says “the bigger thing to understand is that we think of content as something that can bring people closer together”.

“If you walk across the street and see a lot of bars and you know people are just watching together and cheering for that sporting action... you probably don’t even know who is sitting next to you, but you are together cheering. That’s the moment we want to create on the platform.”

“Streaming live sports is not the game. Actually the game is ‘how can you create a whole Watch party around it?’. And how can you bring people closer and let them interact and chat and have meaningful connections. That’s the way we’re thinking of content. And so, whether it’s live streaming or sports or anything else, the bottom line is about having that kind of experience on the platform and whatever content drives that experience.”

Published on ContentAsia's Issue Six 2018, 29 October 2018