Turner Asia Pacific has taken a significant minority stake in  Vietnamese digital media and creator network POPS Worldwide in a move that allows the media conglomerate to better tap into local content development and influencers.

Turner’s Boomerang brand launched in Vietnam in April 2016 on the POPS Kids non-linear platforms (pictured). (All of the content was dubbed into Vietnamese.) The two also previously partnered to launch Boomerang Vietnam on YouTube, bringing shows like Tom & Jerry, The Powerpuff Girls and Scooby-Doo to the country for the first time online.

Digital video network POPS was launched in 2011 and has since doubled its annual views each year, surpassing 40 billion lifetime views. To date, it has reached more than two billion monthly views, and has 32 million YouTube network subscribers, 1,210 channels under management and four billion lifetime watch hours. It also has four million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Zalo, a popular social media app in South East Asia.

The investment will allow POPS to expand its network onto more mobile and non-traditional platforms, increase content production and open in new markets.

Turner’s investment also comes as the web’s popularity continues to grow among APAC kids. According to a March 2017 report from kid-safe digital ad and content platform TotallyAwesome,  77% of kids ages six to 14, if given the choice, prefer to use the internet only versus the TV exclusively. The findings represented an 11% year-on-year increase since the SuperAwesome-founded company began tracking kids’ media consumption patterns in 2015 in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The study also found that a full 95% of families in the region have smartphones at home.