Southeast Asia Music Industry Seeks Scale Through Policy
POPS Worldwide's CEO urged more government regulation and investment as panelists at a Vietnam summit discussed fragmented regional markets.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Entertainment — General
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At the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Vietnam on Nov. 3, Esther Nguyen, CEO of Vietnam-headquartered POPS Worldwide, called for more government regulation and investment to help the region's entertainment and music industry scale globally. Sujey Subramanian of asset manager ICG cited fragmentation of Southeast Asian markets as a barrier to scaling entertainment assets.
Why it matters
Fragmented markets make it difficult to find entertainment assets of scale in the region, a constraint panelists tied to the need for policy support. Panelists framed South Korea's entertainment growth as a model built through a concerted government and industry effort.
The figures come from panelist remarks at the summit rather than an audited market study, and they cover proposed venue sizes and a typical investor check size. Which policy measures governments would adopt, and how quickly, was not addressed.
The players
Esther Nguyen
Esther Nguyen is CEO of POPS Worldwide, a Vietnam-headquartered entertainment company.
Sujey Subramanian
Sujey Subramanian is APAC head of the asset manager ICG, which typically writes minimum equity checks of $50 million.
Kenny Ong
Kenny Ong is managing director of Sony Music for Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
The details
Panelists said Southeast Asia's music industry would need government regulation supporting intellectual property, legal frameworks, international export support, and financial incentives. Nguyen and others also pointed to the growth of physical music products such as CDs, vinyl and box sets, which grew at double-digit rates over the past couple of years, and to Vietnamese government moves to clean up pirated sites.
Timeline
Nov. 3, 2026: Remarks delivered at the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Vietnam.
Big Picture
Panelists invoked South Korea's government-and-industry effort to build its entertainment sector as the model for Southeast Asia's push to scale. The regional case rests on the same levers, namely intellectual property enforcement, export support and investment incentives.
Concert and music purchases in the region depend on venue capacity and product availability, which panelists said is limited by the absence of mid-sized venues. Physical formats such as vinyl and box sets have been growing, giving listeners more ways to buy music.
The takeaway
Scaling regional entertainment depends on policy choices and investment that connect fragmented markets, so readers following the industry should watch for specific regulatory or funding announcements. Panelists framed the outcome as a matter of deliberate effort rather than market forces alone.
Further reading
For related coverage, see the Entertainment — General section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Fortune.
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