Vivamax has become a household name because of the risque content it usually highlights, but is there more to the flicks that brings up those guilty pleasures? We checked out the app and see if there more to what the public can usually see.

A Vivamax is Born

Made available in February 2021, a time when many are at home during the height of the recent pandemic, Viva has shifted to producing online content at a time when cinemas are not available. “We had a number of finished movies and we weren’t sure what to do with them, because we didn’t know when the cinemas would reopen so we created a team. We have a library, so let’s put it there—without any expectations—so people would have a reason to subscribe,” Viva Communications President and CEO Vic Del Rosario said to Inquirer Entertainment in a 2023 story.

Launched with 500 titles composed of foreign and local flicks of different genres, as well as concert videos of Viva Artists like Sarah Geronimo, Vivamax has been the home of their ever-popular risque flicks that span several themes, which the company claims to only compose 10% of the total catalog. 

The app also advertises restored classics and early screenings of movies before they are available for regular subscribers, which you can purchase for an additional fee.

Since then, Vivamax has amassed 600,000 subscribers in its first year alone and has peaked at 7 million subscribers in 2023. It is available in other countries including Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. “Viewers are always looking for something new. You should have consistency. If you don’t have that, you risk losing subscribers,” Del Rosario said.

Future challenges

Vivamax, as well as other local streaming apps that offer adult-oriented content, are thriving in a space where there are no set regulations. The obscene content that Vivmax offers is continuously challenged by several groups. The latest was a case filed against several top Vivamax actresses by the Kapisanan ng mga Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas (KSMBPI) in 2023. They were accused to be violating Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which declares criminal the propagation of “immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions, and indecent shows.

Viva has also realized that viewers may want to subscribe without the juicy content, so they created another streaming app, Vivaone, containing most of Viva’s catalog with its exclusive series and movies, and is devoid of anything risque to possibly avoid a scenario where their whole catalog gets taken down if that time comes. This further divides the would-be audience into two apps, so they started to bundle the two apps together at a discounted monthly rate.

There also goes the piracy that is still rampant, despite being an online streaming app. I’ve seen a lot of Vivamax content being distributed like hotcakes on X (formerly Twitter) and several Telegram channels. Snippets of some of the scenes are also available for viewing online on X accounts, presumably to market these films and get the public to subscribe to the app.

While risque content is at the forefront of Vivamax, it’s no secret that the app offers more value than just being that with the catalog of content you can watch on your alone time. If you enjoy old Viva flicks, too, then you may want to check out the app to see what they offer.