S. Korean streaming services challenge Netflix's primacy

Local streaming services Tving, Watcha, Wavve and more are expanding abroad, confident in the competitiveness of original Korean content

provided by Tving

South Korean online streaming services, also known as over-the-top media services (OTTs), have launched a counteroffensive against overseas OTTs. The key is “globalization.” Watcha expanded its service to Japan last year, Wavve is “considering ways to enter overseas markets,” and Tving also announced it will join hands with Line Corp. and others to expand its services into overseas markets.

Tving co-CEO Yang Ji-eul announced that the online streaming service would enter the US market in 2023, after launching operations in Japan and Taiwan in 2022. Yang made the announcement on Monday at “Tving Connect 2021,” an online event that was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the company’s founding.

“In Japan and Taiwan, the Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) market [which includes Netflix and Tving] is growing rapidly, the popularity of K-content has been proven, and the possibility of expanding into the Southeast Asian market should also be considered in the future,” Yang said. “Also, the US is a market where the K-content fandom is growing, so we made expanding there a priority,” he added. Yang also stated his ambition to expand Tving into more than 10 countries in areas such as Europe and Latin America.

The driving force is killer content. Co-CEO Lee Myung-han said, “As seen in the case of Netflix’s [“Squid Game”], the boost a company can get from strong original content is significant. Preparing killer content is the key to the content business.” While Netflix initially invested 24.5 billion won (US$20.72 million) in “Squid Game,” the value of the show has now risen to 1 trillion won (US$845.68 million).

Like Netflix, Tving is also making efforts to release original content on its platform, rolling out 25 original programs over the past year alone. More original content has resulted in more paying customers. The number of paying subscribers has now more than tripled compared with October last year.

Next year, Lee Seo-jin’s “Surgeon Park,” Kim Dong-wook’s “The King of Pigs,” Hwang Se-in’s “Duty After School,” Koo Gyo-hwan’s “Strange,” and other anticipated series are lined up for release. Film director Lee Joon-ik is also unveiling the drama “Beyond the Memory” starring Han Ji-min and Shin Ha-kyun.

Another noteworthy point is how Korean media content is expanding into categories such as animation and documentaries. Even popular Korean dramas are set to be recreated as animations. For instance, producer Seok Jong-seo of “The Haunted House” will be transforming the popular drama “Tale of the Nine Tailed” into an animated series for Tving.

Tving is also expanding its documentary series, with producer Lee Wook-jeong’s “Food Chronicles” currently in the making. “It’s a lot of responsibility to make the first Tving original documentary series, but I’m excited about being able to try something new,” Lee said.

Co-CEO Lee Myung-han said, “Beyond K-dramas, we will create a new world of K-animations and K-documentaries that have Tving’s unique touch.”

Producer Na Young-seok, who produced variety shows for Tving, said, “The fact that Tving is mostly filled with K-content seems to set it apart [from other OTT services]. It seems that now [OTTs] are at the stage where they need to be globalized.”

In addition to OTT original series such as “D.P.” and “Squid Game,” the competitiveness of domestic content has been confirmed in many ways, such as when TV series like tvN’s “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” become big hits on OTTs.

That means domestic OTTs have a significant chance to succeed. In 2022, when a large number of overseas OTTs enter Korea and domestic OTTs begin to expand overseas, the OTT market is expected to see fierce competition. Tving Co-CEO Yang said, “The goal is to increase the number of domestic subscribers to 8 million by 2023. We will raise this target once our overseas projects materialize.”

Co-CEO Lee Myung-han said, “Disney+ and Netflix are clearly setting the stage. [Domestic OTTs also] need to be globalized someday, so in a sense, it’s better to have the home-court advantage for the first round of a challenge we’ll have to face eventually.”

By Nam Ji-eun, staff reporter

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