Korean Streamer Tving Has What it Takes to Challenge Netflix, Says CEO Yang Ji-eul (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comKorea, one of the world’s most advanced economies and now one of the most competitive OTT markets.Now, local contender Tving reckons it has many of the tools it needs to unseat Netflix from its hard-earned position as Korea’s top dog streamer.Streaming industry numbers in Korea have risen in roughly inverse proportion to the decline of theatrical film industry.
South Korea was the world’s fourth biggest box office market until 2019, but it is now chugging along with a dearth of local titles and aggregate revenues averaging a miserable $5 million per weekend so far in 2022.Consultancy, Media Partners Asia has estimated in contrast that Netflix may have ended 2021 with some six million paying subscribers (in a population of 51 million).
Tving, which is backed by CJ ENM, but no longer controlled by it, recently announced that it grew its subscriber total by 60% in 2021.
It declined to reveal actual numbers (outside sources estimate a figure exceeding 2 million, but recently said that monthly active users had reached 4.17 million by December 2021, a 166% increase over a year earlier).
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