By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) — According to Jessica Fuk, a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence, South Korean streaming providers, such as Tving and Wavve, can still challenge international giant Netflix in the local market if they come up with effective strategies to deal with rising production costs and viewers’ changing preferences.
“South Korean local companies have been very strong in producing local content, led by CJ ENM and Studio Dragon,” Fuk said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday. “So there is still room to catch up (with Netflix) and I think it is not too far, given the right strategy.”
Jessica Fuk, a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence, poses for a photo after an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Sept. 5, 2023, in this photo provided by the company. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Since its arrival in South Korea in 2016, Netflix has been dominating the streaming market, thanks to a number of global hits, such as “Kingdom” (2019), “Squid Game” (2021) and “The Glory” (2022). According to Mobile Index, the platform’s daily active users averaged 2.91 million in August, followed by Tving with 1.26 million, Wavve with 1.11 million and Coupang Play with 710,000.
Fuk noted that Netflix has established its leading position in the country with its financial strength, while the COVID-19 pandemic has caused production costs to skyrocket.
“It would be hard for local players to survive because of the heavy content cost. No one would have that much money as Netflix,” she said. “Instead of cutting costs on very expensive titles or premium titles, they are cutting on the expenses for not so popular titles.”
At this point, Fuk pointed out that South Korean streaming companies can demonstrate their capacity to compete against Netflix.
Jessica Fuk, a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Sept. 5, 2023, in this photo provided by the company. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
In recent years, Korean streaming operators, led by CJ ENM, have been taking action to break Netflix’s dominance through mergers and partnerships. Tving, for instance, merged with Seezn, run by KT Studio Genie, the media production unit of telecom operator KT Corp., in 2022, becoming the second-largest player in terms of subscribers and revenue share. The platform also collaborated with Paramount+, a U.S. streaming service run by Paramount Global, to provide Tving users with Paramount franchise content free of charge.
Moreover, there have been reports that Tving and Wavve, the streaming platform run by KBS, MBC and SBS, are in talks to merge in an effort to survive in the South Korean streaming market.
This image presents the names of streaming services in South Korea. (Yonhap)
Fuk highlighted that domestic streamers have advantages that they can take advantage of, such as better access to local production resources. She also said that if local players can find ways to focus on certain content categories or genres, they still stand a chance of succeeding, even if their subscriber base is not as large as Netflix’s.
brk@yna.co.kr
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