While Netflix announced its plan to invest 550 billion won in Korean content this year, it said, “Now is not the time to fight over small pies,” in the OTT market interest’Disney Plus’ (Disney+) entering Korea. It is time to grow pies,” he stressed on shared growth.
On the 25th, Netflix promoted investment plans and 2021 contents through’See What’s Next Korea 2021 Contents Roadshow’. Min-young Kim, VP of content in Korea and Asia, held an online conference to answer questions from reporters. About 80 reporters attended the video conference held that day.
[관련 기사: 넷플릭스, 한국 콘텐츠에 올 한해만 5500억 투자한다 ]
At the press conference, questions focused on’Korean content’ such as the status of Korean content in Netflix, the level of contribution, the reason why Korean content is loved, and the meaning of Korea in content production were poured out.
Director Kim Min-young said, “In the early days (2016), the proportion of Korean content was small, but as’Secret Forest’,’Hwa Yu-Gi’,’Beautiful Sister Who Buys Good Food’, and’Miss Sunshine’ came in, ) The signal became clear and I was confident,” he said. “Especially, the recent’Sweet Home’ was seen by 22 million households in 8 days after the release. Korean content has already established itself as a genre.”
Director Kim said, “In order to increase accessibility to Korean content, we will invest more in improving accessibility such as subtitle caption and voice support so that there are no parts that are difficult to view audiovisually as well as subtitles and dubbing.” Companies are also experiencing tremendous growth with Netflix. I think this is a win-win situation.”
In particular, 2021 is the year Disney Plus enters Korea. When asked about the future of the OTT market, general manager Kim said, “A variety of platforms such as Disney will enter Korea, and there are still many platforms such as Wave, Whatcha, and Teabing. This is a good thing for consumers. “There are more options.”
“It is a very good phenomenon for Netflix that the whole industry grows together,” said Kim. “Netflix will try to make it a more attractive place for creators.”
“Especially now, it is time to grow the overall pie of the OTT platform,” he said. “It is not time to fight over small pies.”
Currently, OTT services such as Netflix are being actively used due to Corona 19, but questions about the phenomenon that Netflix invades and monopolizes content as it becomes difficult to open theaters. The question is whether there is a way to coexist with the theater.
Director Kim replied, “Netflix grows together with the Korean film industry and this eventually leads to interest in Korean films.”
Director Kim said, “Netflix movies help creators to tell their own stories without worrying about the box office. It has 200 million viewers, so it makes various works appear in the world,” and said, “We will be able to develop a diverse audience.” There was no specific answer on how to coexist with the theater. However, it was expected that if Netflix invested in Korean content and serviced it for viewers around the world to watch, investment in Korean filmmakers would increase.
There was also a question about the network fee. Netflix is currently in a lawsuit with SK Broadband over the problem of network usage fees. Although Netflix is making profits through domestic traffic, it is in a position that it will not pay network usage fees.
Director Kim replied, “We have cooperated with telecommunications companies around the world for the past several years,” and “We will continue to make proposals to provide the best service to various telecommunications companies and consumers.”
Recently, rankings have been compiled on Netflix, which is a different recommendation method from the recommendation algorithm based on the video viewed by existing users.
In this regard, general manager Kim said, “On social media, I read that’It seems that the time to think about what to watch is longer than the actual time to watch Netflix content’. (The ranking is to make it easier to see what content is popular). “The top 10 content is counted every day, and it serves to tell which works are popular and what to see.”
“In the end, the story Netflix wants to tell is’various stories’,” said Kim. “Even if the content does not conform to the existing formula that guarantees commercial success, it is possible to learn different cultures and thinking in 190 countries, and bring a good culture. Netflix wants to play the role.”
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