Disney+ struggles to grow share in Korean market

Two years after launch, the picture is looking dismal for Disney+ as its pie in the Korean streaming market grows smaller despite huge investments poured into producing original Korean series.

From left, actors Ryu Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo and Zo In-sung pose for a photo at an event to promote the Disney+ original series “Moving” in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Aug. 3. [NEWS1]

When Disney+ was first launched in Korea in November 2021, Star Wars, Marvel and animation fans were thrilled to dig into a treasure trove full of their favorite films. Two years after the launch, the situation is looking dismal for Disney+ as its pie in the Korean streaming market grows smaller despite huge investments poured into producing original Korean series.

Monthly active users (MAU) of Disney+ in December 2021 and January 2022 exceeded 2 million according to market tracker Mobile Index, but the streaming service received a fair share of complaints about poor subtitling and a lack of key app functions.

Korean-language originals including drama series, K-pop-related documentaries and reality shows with star-studded casts such as Kang Daniel, Seo Kang-jun, Han So-hee, Lee Sung-min, BTS, Super Junior and more were steadily released but failed to garner tangible results, with MAUs continuing to shrink down to some 1.7 million in July 2022.

Disney+ has yet to find its footing within the local streaming market, still ranking No. 5 in MAUs against competitors like Netflix, Tving, Coupang Play, Wavve and Watcha. While the No. 1 streaming giant Netflix’s average MAU surpassed 10.1 million from April to May, Disney+ ranked No. 5 with some 1.8 million.

The latest 50 billion-won ($37.4 million) drama series starring Zo In-sung, Han Hyo-joo, and Ryu Seung-ryong is “Moving,” adapted from a popular webtoon of the same title. After releasing the first seven episodes on Aug. 8 globally the streaming service unveiled that it plans to release two new episodes per week through Sept. 20.

The series is raved to be a success, topping the top 10 daily charts across five countries — Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan — on Monday according to analytics company FlixPatrol. However, the service experienced another glitch locally when episodes 8 and 9, which were supposed to be uploaded at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, did not appear in the playlist. Actor Ryu Seung-ryong took to his personal Instagram account to instruct his fans on how to watch the updated episodes.

Globally, Disney+ lost 11.7 million subscribers during the April-June period, going down to 146.1 million subscribers. During a recent online conference call, CEO Bob Iger said the company will be rolling out a more aggressive crackdown on password sharing, following the lead from Netflix. Disney+ will also hike up its price for ad-free membership from $10.99 a month to $13.99 starting from Oct. 12.

Disney+ announced earlier in February that it will be cutting some 7,000 jobs globally to reduce costs and to revamp its business — and there were rumors about the company slashing the local content development team last month, which the Walt Disney Company Korea flatly denied.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]