This photo illustration shows the Netflix logo on a smartphone.
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Netflix said Thursday it will spend $ 500 million this year on movies and series produced in South Korea to broaden the country’s growing amount of content.
Korean filmmakers and stars gathered in Seoul, where the US streaming giant announced its investment plans and also previewed footage from its upcoming slate of local language series.
Netflix announced that the streaming service had 3.8 million paid subscribers in South Korea at the end of last year.
Over the past two years we’ve watched the world fall in love with incredible Korean content, made in Korea and watched by the world on Netflix.
Ted Sarandos
co-CEO and chief content officer, Netflix
Over the past five years – from 2015 to 2020 – Netflix has invested $ 700 million to expand Korean content and establish two purpose-built production facilities in the country. In addition to acquiring rights to existing Korean content, Netflix has created more than 80 original shows and movies locally, including creator Kim Eun-hee’s popular zombie thriller “Kingdom”.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen the world fall in love with incredible Korean content, made in Korea and watched by the world on Netflix,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and chief content officer at Netflix, said via video at the event.
“Our commitment to Korea is strong. We will continue to invest and work with Korean storytellers across a wealth of genres and formats,” he added.
On Thursday, Netflix also announced two new original films from South Korea.
South Korean cinema has gained international acclaim in recent years.
Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho rose to world fame last year when his acclaimed film “Parasite” dominated the award season. It made history and became the first non-English-language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Netflix, for its part, has shifted its focus to Asia-Pacific in recent years as the growth of new subscribers in other parts of the world has slowed due to the fact that many people already had paid memberships.
The streaming giant headquartered in California is betting heavily on markets like South Korea, India and the entire Southeast Asia region to boost its future growth momentum. Netflix has made more than 200 Asian original series and movies since 2016, Sarandos said.
As of December 2020, Netflix reported more than 25 million paid memberships in the Asia-Pacific region, compared to more than 200 million worldwide.